The Past is the Present
by almne
Summary: Toothless had a bond with Hiccup that was unusual even among the Vikings and their dragons. Centuries later, that bond still pulls at him. Not Romance
1. Prologue

Okay, so this is totally and completely different from my other stories. It's also been pestering me since before I finished A Downed Dragon. Very, very insistently pestered me. I don't know if you'll like it, it's not a retelling set in modern times, but a soul mate (not romantically) through time story. The movie characters are only referenced, most of them are not in this fic. If everybody shrieks that they hate it then I'll just write it for myself rather than posting it. Still working on the sequel for A Downed dragon.

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Disclaimer: Not mine, though I do own the Night Fury figures from Walmart, the Toothless phone strap, and the Hallmark ornament. Yay geek!

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Newfoundland, 1905

He stood, watching the waves roll in as he looked to the east as the sun set to the west. While the years, the centuries, have passed unremarked for the most part to him, every year, late in the summer, he would come to the easternmost part of the island to look. To remember.

To remember the one place he would ever consider home. He knew that they would never come back for him. His Rider was long gone, he had been beside him when he passed after a long life. By now if anyone still lived there he would be nothing more than a memory, a legend. Which, granted he'd been even before being brought here for safety. He watched to the east so fiercely, as if by pure will alone he would be able to bridge the miles of ocean to go back there.

This was the one time he would allow himself to feel regret. Not for the loss of the skies, not for being away from the island he would always consider home, but for the loss of his Rider. The one and only person he had allowed to become so close to him. It hurt, even now, a part of him ached with that loss.

He dipped his head, closing his eyes. Normally he would spend more time here, but this time the humans were drawing nearer. These ones were far more persistent than the ones who normally got so irritated with his minor raids on their sheep. It wasn't like he took many, and even then only when his own hunting was going absolutely abysmally. He wasn't sure why they were being so annoying this time, but he certainly wasn't going to stay here long enough to be caught out here daydreaming about the past. He stood up, his mostly useless wings spreading slightly to help his balance. His nostrils flared slightly. They were close, not so much that they, with their weak eyesight would see him in the dusk, not to mention the distance, but far too close for his liking. Stupid humans, being upwind while trying to find him. He snorted at the idea, before turning and heading inland to where there was more cover.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine

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California 2010

Mike carefully folded yet another shirt before putting it in his suitcase. He knew he was grinning like an idiot, but he really couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. He'd been sure his mom would shoot down his choice of a vacation spot, but she'd simply sighed as though she had anticipated it and nodded. Given the fact that she'd brought out flyers and info she'd googled about activities in the area, she probably had known. His father was a marine captain stationed at Mirimar Air Station, at least for now. With his busy schedule as well as when Mike and his two older siblings had school, it was rare that they actually had a chance at a summer vacation for all of them. When it did happen they would have a two-week stay wherever one of the kids had chosen. The first time had been when his older brother had been 11. He had picked Orlando, wanting to go to Disney World and Universal Studios. The next time the planets had aligned it had been his older sister's choice of Myrtle Beach. This time it had been his choice. Rocky Mountain National Park and Dragon Preserve.

"Christ, I can't believe you are such a geek that you picked a freakin' park to go to for vacation." His sister Ashley leaned against the door jam to his room. "Not to mention so drag-obssesed to want to go watch a bunch of vicious reptiles that would bite your arm off as soon as look at you."

"They aren't reptiles." He replied, ignoring most of her ranting. She'd been pissed at the thought of being locked away from civilization, which apparently meant shopping within a ten minute drive, since he'd announced his choice of vacation destinations. "They are classified as a separate family as they have warm blood." He bit his lip to keep from laughing at her now epically pissed face.

"Whatever. I would think you'd at least have the courtesy to pick a cool place for Drew. This is his last summer free before he goes to Annapolis." She replied. She wandered in univited. "Wanted to have a quick 'chat' with you before we left." The quotation marks hovered even without her doing any hand gestures. She was watching him closely now, most of the pissyness gone from her expression. "You give mom any grief while we're there, any at all, and I will end you."

"How would I give mom grief?" He asked, trying to maintain a casual expression.

"I know you still have those dreams. No matter what bullshit you told the shrink or mom, I know you still have them." She snapped at him. "You get there and forget about the fact that dreams aren't reality and get eaten by some dragon, I will hunt down the shit pile your remains are found in, reassemble your body and find some way to get you back in it just so I can have the satisfaction of killing you myself."

He flushed. The dreams were something he'd had since before he could remember. Him and a dragon, flying through the skies, free above everything. He always felt a connection in those dreams. Over the years they'd happened so frequently he missed them when he hadn't had one for a few days. When he was little his mother had simply passed them off as a sign of an active imagination. Most kids went through a dragon phase, like they went through a dinosaur phase or like girls had a horse phase. Once they realized that the daydream of riding dragons was about as likely to occur as riding a tornado, with the same likelihood of death, most grew out of it. As he grew older and continued to pester his mother with his dreams of adventures over islands and seas with the same dragon she became worried, then concerned. Eventually she'd wound up taking his to a psychiatrist as she started to panic about his apparently permanent imaginary friend. The shrink, as Ashley called him, had talked very soothingly to him, telling him that imaginary friends were all well and good for little kids, but he was becoming older and shouldn't he leave such things to the past? A year later, sick of having to take the meds the shrink had suggested and really tired of going and having to talk to him he decided to pretend like the dreams had gone away. They hadn't, but now that he didn't talk about them to anybody his mom had believed his story that they were gone.

"And how would you know I still had them?" He asked warily watching his sister.

"Snooped through your files on your computer." She replied. At his outraged look she smirked. "Revenge for the time you stole my diary."

"I was six!" He stated, still irritated, both at her snooping through his stuff and at her spoiling his good mood.

"So I waited on getting my revenge, what's it matter?" She shrugged, "Just to let you know I'm watching." She turned and left. "I will kick your ass, _Hiccup_."

He winced at the name. It technically was his middle name. Michael Hiccup Harrigan. According to what his brother and sister told him when he was little it was because mom and dad had planned on just having two kids and he was an accident, thus Hiccup. Ah the joys of siblings. And the mental trauma. According to his mom, he had been having spasms, like he was having hiccups for almost the entire time of the last trimester leaving her feeling nauseous the whole time. He wasn't sure whether that showed that his mother had gotten some seriously good drugs in the delivery room or that she had a well-hidden vengeful streak. He also slightly blamed his dad who'd been away on a deployment. Mike was sure that if he'd been there he would've put his foot down on the whole thing.

It hadn't been too bad, until he has done something to annoy his sister when they were at the same elementary school together. She'd spread the news of his middle name to everybody. They'd all found it hilarious. He'd learned to ignore them as getting angry simply encouraged him. He figured it was better than the one kid whose first name had been from a great-great uncle. There was a trust fund involved. The poor kid was named Alfredo, which had ended up with him being called Pasta all of the time.

He finished putting the clothes he'd need in his suitcase and looked around the room to decide if there was anything else he would want with him. His laptop was a given. He looked around and his eyes landed on the toolkit his parents had gotten him for Christmas the last year. His mom had been thrilled at his interest with building and making things that he'd developed in middle school. He'd enjoyed making things in shop class, and somehow it seemed to bring a stronger connection to his dreams. He wasn't sure why, but didn't question it. Building things was fun. Adapting things, which was a favorite game of his shop teacher, was even more fun. Feeling that connection as he looked at the kit, he scooped it up a hid it under a couple of shirts. There wasn't really any way to explain why he wanted to bring it, and trying would only make Ashley look his way, probably with a fist.

He shook himself. He was going to the oldest and largest dragon preserve in the nation, if not the world. He would get to see actual dragons in the wild. Maybe that would satisfy his dreams, maybe then he wouldn't feel drawn so much to a dragon that could only exist in them.

Maybe.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Not mine, but I've pre-ordered the 2 disc DVD set!

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He found himself wandering towards the entrance to the park. Something was calling him. He glanced down from where he perched on a cliff near where the humans had their living spaces. Or whatever they were. People came, they left, he avoided them with extreme prejudice.

There were a number of the noisy, smelly things the humans used to move themselves around the buildings. "_Cars_" Beneficence called them, but then he insisted on using human terms. Strange dragon. He could see quite clearly from where he was the humans scurrying around, doing incomprehensible things. The same as always. But not the same, as well. The calling, the pull to go down near them was startling.

He flicked his tail, the missing fin no longer startling to see for him. His eyes narrowed at the sudden need to go closer. He'd never willingly been near a human since he'd come to this land. Why did he want to come close to where there were dozens milling about? He shook his head sharply snorting. He followed that with a full body shake before retreating into the woods. He was confused by the urge to go down among the humans, and worried. As he loped easily under the trees he didn't notice how the gnawing ache he'd become so used to had lessened a bit.

-xXx—

Mike was smiling so widely that it was a surprise his lips hadn't split. He hadn't even lost the grin when helping lug his sister's luggage into the cabin. He was sure that her suitcases had bred during the flight here, there was no way Mom had let her bring that many bags from home initially. He was here. Really really here! He'd planned actually on making a trip here after high school, before he started college, but that would've been years in the future as he was only starting as a freshman this fall.

There were a number of cabins in a grouping near the lake. There was no tent camping in the Preserve. Granted that while the cabins weren't completely dragon-proof, they were far better than a tent, which was simply gift-wrapping yourself for any hungry or lazy dragon that decided to go for it. The cabins had thick concrete walls, not very cabin like, but fairly safe. There were no fences keeping the forest and wildlife from the campgrounds. There was no fence that had been built that would keep a dragon out, or in, forever. Apparently one campsite was off limits due to a flock of American Frightful Nightmares (slightly smaller than a European Monstrous Nightmare, and less brightly colored) deciding to nest there, so his family was lucky to have reserved their place when they did as a number of people had their reservations cancelled. Mostly the rule was don't aggravate the dragons and they won't eat you. Mike had been rather impressed with how many liability wavers his parents had needed to fill out at the park entrance. In fact until twenty years ago there hadn't been any camping within the park, only local motels and so forth.

Once everything was inside, including food and other essentials, Mike's mother clapped her hands to get everybody's attention.

"Okay guys, and girl." She added with a smile at Ashley. "We've gotten here early enough in the day that we can catch one of the last vehicle tours the park has today. I think we'll start on that shall we?"

His dad smiled as he came up beside her. "Sounds good here. We'll still get back early enough for me to grill those steaks I picked out."

Ashley looked like she still wanted to play the angst driven sixteen year old to the max, but grudgingly nodded. Drew shrugged, "That's why we're here isn't it? To see the dragons?"

-xXx—

Mike practically floated on the walk to the tour bus. Which was a completely awesome vehicle, to his mind. It looked like a double-decker bus from England that had been attacked by a makeover team from Hummer. Mike was pretty sure he'd seen tractors with smaller tires. He took the steps up to the second level two at a time, ignoring his Dad's warning to be careful. Looking around, he decided on a seat on the far back corner as there was no roof so it gave him the clearest view in the most directions. There was a console toward the front, which looked like it was part of a sound system with a microphone which blocked a good portion of the front view. He was so busy looking around, he barely noticed his Mom taking a seat next to him. Ashley picked a seat up front, far enough away to have plausible deniability about her relationship to her family. She leaned back in the seat folding her arms across her middle to show her mood. Drew sat in the middle, stretching his legs out behind the seat in front of him. Dad chose to sit with him as the two began talking about Drew's upcoming schooling.

Several other people got on the bus, several staying below. Another young woman wearing a shirt with Park Service emblazoned on it climbed up the stairs before going to the very front to pick up the microphone that was set into the front panel. "Welcome to Rocky Mountain National Park and Dragon Preserve! I am Stacy Mitchell one of the many rangers within this park helping maintain it and hopefully teaching you about this beautiful park's history" She announced cheerfully. "Please make sure you are sitting as we get this show on the road. Or trail as the case may be." She kept up a stream of chatter as the bus lurched into gear and began to move. "Let's see some dragons! Now, this park is the oldest dragon preserve in the world. In the 1800's as humans were spreading into the west one naturalist feared that we might wind up pushing the native species of dragons out, as had happened in many parts of Europe years before. Looking for a way to prevent this the naturalist, Dr. Fredrick Tremblay, petitioned the Federal Government to set aside land for a place where dragons could be left alone. This was considered extremely unusual for the times, as the idea of setting aside perfectly good land was practically insane to most of the public. However, dragon/human interactions were increasing as populations continued to grow. As the continental railroad was completed it became popular for the wealthy to shoot at buffalo as the trains went through the plains. Dragons quickly realized that large quantities of meat followed the trains and more or less began to consider them their own personal buffet." There was a bit of scattered laughter. "Like the way bears and coyotes can lose their fear of humans when there's easy food in reach, so do dragons. They are also much larger for the most part and far harder to kill. And the whole fire-breathing part is nothing to laugh about."

She paused for a moment to grab onto a handhold as the bus turned on a small paved road. She then turned and gestured to the left side of the bus. The trees parted to the side showing the drop of an insanely steep cliff they were driving up and giving a gorgeous view of the surrounding valley. "This part of the mountains was set aside for the dragons, as well as being kept as an example of untouched wilderness. We don't just have dragons of course, there are coyotes, bears, deer, elk, and mountain lions to name a few. In order to lure the dragons to this area a number of heads of cattle were driven here, as well as a goodly sized herd of buffalo. That is in fact the main reason that the dragons stay here, easy access to food. We now have partnerships with a number of metro parks where if they wind up with an overpopulation of deer, they separate the herds and ship the extra animals here. After they've been given a health check they are released into the park. We also monitor and stock the larger lakes within the park."

She smiled again as she looked over the people listening to her. "On this tour we will be stopping in several areas where Dragonologists have recorded certain species returning to repeatedly. We have 17 species of dragon here, ranging from the Common Terror to a pair of South American Deadly Nadders who migrate here every summer."

Mike shot his hand up. "Is it true you have a Night Fury?"

Stacy nodded in his direction. "Somebody did their research. Yes, we have the only known Night Fury in the Americas. Called the Night Fury from early translations of Nordic myths, it is the only dragon that is black from its nose to its tail. Most dragons have some sort of different colored markings, whether it's stripes, speckling or a simple gradient to another color. While Night Furies sometimes have a dark grey mottling, from a distance they appear completely black. 'Loki" as we call him was found in Newfoundland. According to the native people they knew there was a creature that they called the Dark Demon, or at least that's the best translation. Early European settlers simply called him Devil, which as time passed became the Newfy Devil. It wasn't until the spread of photography that anybody was able to get a clear image of what it was that had raided the occasional flock of sheep and other livestock. In 1905 the locals of the island decided they wanted the Night Fury gone. Having heard of our park they contacted us about transferring him here. The park managers enlisted the help of a famous big-game hunter of the time, by the name of Douglas Fennel, to help track the dragon down to bring him here."

She paused and chuckled slightly. "In fact Mr. Fennel is credited as naming the dragon Loki. It was the only name he called the dragon in his journal during the seven month hunt that we are able to use in polite company." This caused a loud bit of laughter from several people. "He swore Loki could read his mind. The dragon led the chase the entire length and breadth of the island. If you'd like more details, we sell copies of Douglas Fennel's journal in our gift shop."

"Unfortunately, the best time of the year to see Loki is during the winter, when there is less undergrowth, and his dark hide stands out in the snow. He tends to avoid humans for the most part, so most sightings are through binoculars. For being unable to fly, he is an extremely reclusive dragon. A number of researchers believe Loki got lost in a storm and wound up crashing on Newfoundland, causing his tail to become injured. This isn't the only theory, just the most widely accepted one."

The bus pulled up to an overlook that showed a lake down below them. Stacy looked over the side before brightening more "Ah, good! If you look over at the lake, towards the narrow end, you can see several Crested Slitherhawks." Mike was on the side of the bus facing the lake and craned his head. They were a good distance away from the beasts, but it was close enough to see the brilliant gold crests on the heads of the Slitherhawks. He was amazed at being this close to a wild dragon, with nothing between them but space that a flying creature could erase in a moment. It was great. There were the sounds of a number of cameras snapping as people jostled each other to get a good picture. Stacy then went into detail about Slitherhawks, how they preferred to stoop down on their prey from above like a hawk and how they tended to build burrows that had incredibly narrow entrances. He looked backwards at the lake longingly as the bus pulled away. His mother looked at him, smiling slightly.

"Having fun Mikey?" She asked looking him over.

"Oh yeah, this is great!" He replied enthusiastically. Really he wished they could get closer, but that was not really possible.

Stacy took up her lecture again. "We've been keeping records on the dragons within the park since it was established. We have a schedule where we track down each dragon every five years to do a visual inspection as well as take blood and other samples to analyze. In the past 30 years we've been tagging the dragons with tracking devices during their check-ups. This has allowed us to monitor where the dragons spend most of their time, what seems to be their territory. These readings are actually what guide us in planning this tour route. It actually changes depending on the season, as the dragons move around. This info also helped us decide where to place the main campsite, as no large dragon was mapped as having it in their territory."

She smiled again. "And here is a point where Loki sticks out again. We have never been able to find a tracking device that the Night Fury hasn't been able to discard or destroy within a day. Generally less, so we have far less data on him then most of our other inhabitants. Though we still lead in information of the breed due to their extremely reclusive nature in the wild. When it comes time for his check up we usually assemble a team led by an experienced tracker, whoever he or she feels is necessary, as well as any junior personnel who don't know enough to request time off beforehand to help with carrying supplies." Here she grimaced. "I was one of those juniors who got to roam for five months as we tracked Loki down." She shook her head. "It was worth it though to see a Night Fury that close, even if he was unconscious from the tranq gas that we liberally applied. Darts don't tend to work, as there are very few spots on a dragon that are thin enough for the needles to penetrate. Had to wear masks while we dosed him."

The tour continued, and they saw several other dragon species, with Stacy telling about their habits and other trivia about each one as they came across it. The bus had pulled over again, Stacy being really excited this time as they had spotted the South American Deadly Nadder pair that came to this park regularly. This time the viewing side was opposite of the side Mike was on. He stood up to try to press through the crowd that had gathered (a number of people who had been below had come up to the top) to get a better look at the two dragons off in the distance, when he felt a prickling between his shoulder blades and turned.

The bus had been winding down one side of one of the mountains and the road had been more or less carved into that side, leaving a sheer edge that led to the roadway. Perched on that edge, staring down at him was Loki. He knew it had to be the Night Fury, it was all black, and looked like the few pictures that had been taken at a distance he'd seen in books. This wasn't at a distance though. The dragon was no more than ten feet away from him. His jaw fell open, and he noticed the dragon tense, ready to flee if he drew the other people's attention to it. He stayed silent, marveling over the creature. A part of him was very, very disturbed though. This wasn't just a Night Fury. He would bet everything he owned, not to mention his sanity that this was the dragon from his dreams. He _knew _this dragon, was certain he could draw him in detail right down to the tiniest scale, the faintest scar. He _knew_ that he wasn't named Loki, knew it deep in his bones. Caught staring at the dragon, trapped in a waking dream, he couldn't move. Not even to shut his mouth, which was hanging open like he was a moron. He managed to pull himself together to mouth _You are the most beautiful dragon ever._

He was suddenly jostled as a person went to find their seat again, causing him to break the stare. When he looked up, the Night Fury was gone, only a branch that swayed slightly showed that anything had been there. He managed to get to his seat, still in a daze. His mother reseated herself next to him.

"Still enjoying yourself?" She asked, smiling and looking more relaxed now.

Mike managed to drag his jumbled thoughts together to give her the biggest smile of the day, "Best vacation EVER."

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Just to make it clear, in this story Mike is 14, Ashley is 16, and Drew is 19

While Rocky Mountain National Park does exist, I am making up pretty much everything else about it. Though a quick look at the pictures, I swear it is a gorgeous place. So if anybody has visited it and is sitting there saying "Hey this isn't right!" well, I only pretty much used the name, not much else. That park wasn't declared until 1915 either, while in my story it was set aside in the late 1800's.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be

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He ran. Leaping over fallen limbs, occasionally breaking into short glides from small cliffs. He'd gotten good at gliding even with his injury. A number of centuries on your own can force you to learn new techniques. He was also much better at climbing, a ravine or bowl didn't have a chance of holding him now. But for now he ran, as fast as he could. He refused to admit that his run was in a panic, he didn't panic. He was over a thousand years old. _He didn't panic_. It was just so unnerving, so unsettling to see that human so close.

It was strange though, the human didn't really look like his long lost Rider. He was skinny, but not really scrawny the way Hiccup had been. He felt a twinge at remembering his Rider's name. For his own sanity he'd locked those memories away long ago. Hiccup had grown up on Berk, and while food on the island was available, no one would've considered it as insanely plentiful as it seemed to be in this land. Not to mention his habit of being distracted by some project or another, which would lead to his skipping of meals by accident. He'd finally lost some of that scrawniness when he'd married Astrid. The young woman had no reservations about yanking his notebook and whatever writing instrument he had out of his hands when setting down a platter in front of him.

The boy's coloring was also different. Hiccup had been pale, freckled with dark auburn hair that only showed the red sheen in it when in bright sunlight, which was rare on the island. This one had slightly darker skin, though that could be due to the sun, with dark brown hair that was only a shade away from being black. The eyes, though, their eyes were both green. An utterly stupid thing to focus on, he castigated himself.

His run had brought him close to Beneficence's territory. If one could call a walled garden a territory. The other dragons avoided Beneficence, considering him too strange from his long contact with humans. Beneficence ignored their comments, refusing to respond to them. The wall around the garden was only eight feet tall, more for seclusion than anything preventative, as any dragon could easily climb, jump, or fly over it. Within the walls was a carefully kept garden that was beautiful, even to his untrained eyes. Beneficence had come with humans, and even now was tended to by them, though they mostly tended the garden and kept out of his way.

The Night Fury paced back and forth, not wanting to enter the garden as he could smell humans there, yet wanting to discuss things with Beneficence who was the only dragon with more experience around humans than him. He wavered, trying to decide if he should enter or return after dark when he smelled the odd scent of Beneficence and heard a thump behind him.

"It is unusual to see you Unnamed." Beneficence called to him. He had a name, every dragon in the region and further knew of him, but he hadn't used it since coming to this land and it would be considered rude or challenging to use it without his declaration. The other dragon had curled on the ground looking at him curiously. They didn't really interact much, Beneficence still lived near humans, while he tried to avoid them, but they did have something in common from the other dragons, understanding at least a little about humans.

He paced back and forth again before looking at the other. "You have heard of my past, where I came from?"

Beneficence curled a little tighter, his body more flexible than the Night Fury's, and cocked his head. "You destroyed the Tyrant who had terrorized so many clans. You lived among the only people in the West who accepted dragonkind until war from the rest of the continent drove them out. Somehow you ended up here. I only know the basics, while gossip travels, several thousand miles is still quite a distance to bridge even for our kind."

The Night Fury lifted his head, sitting down and curling his maimed tail around him. "That is the most basic way of describing it. But one thing you missed was my rider. My Hiccup." He dipped his head down. "When we met it was shortly after I had been knocked out of the sky. He found me. He'd been the one to do it. He'd been able to take me down, do something no other dragon or human had before. And oh how humiliating it was." He hunched down, curving his wings out partway in front of himself. "So small, so skinny. When he released me I wanted nothing more than to rip him to pieces. I had him pinned, could've done anything to him, and he did nothing. Simply looked at me with wide green eyes. And I couldn't do it, I couldn't kill him."

Beneficence lifted his head, looking at him with far more interest. "You felt a connection in that glance. You didn't want to admit it, but it was as if you knew him already."

The Night Fury jerked upwards, flipping his wings back to fold them tightly to his back in startlement. "How would you know?"

"That is my story, which I will have no problems with telling, once you've finished yours." The dragon flicked his tail in an amused way. "I have a feeling you are rarely this, as I've heard say, chatty."

The Night Fury eyed him. Beneficence had a habit of picking up human ways of speaking and translating them in to the dragon's language for fun. He knew the other dragon was strange, but seeing it, or hearing it, was still unnerving. He snorted at the comment, and fluttered his wings to show minor irritation, all of his facial ridges pressed down around his head. "I released the boy, after screaming at him, and took off. Or tried to." He flicked his tail, flicking open and shut the webbing that remained. "I hadn't realized how I was injured until I found myself landing in a small lake in the middle of a natural bowl. Had I realized what had happened I would've gone a different direction. Any direction would've been better as with my tail damaged I couldn't get the height I needed to get free. Being used to flight, my strength in the rest of my body wasn't as great as it is now. I assumed I would have the choice of starving to death or waiting for the human to bring others." He laid down, tucking his tail in close. "Instead the boy came, without others, to see me. Then he brought food. He kept coming closer to me. And then," here he seemed completely lost as he spoke, "he tried to fix what he had done. Over the days and weeks we became closer. He seemed to understand me without a word being spoken, neither of us knowing the other's language, and I came to read him as easily as I used to read the winds. Then we flew." He caught Beneficence's gaze. "It's impossible to explain if you have never lost the ability, but it was both terrifying and wonderful. That moment when it was as if he fit into me and we flew as easily together as I had on my own. That moment was when I knew that even should he develop a way for me to fly on my own, I would never leave him."

He dipped his head, lowering it near the ground. "There were difficulties afterwards. Humans snarling at each other over who knows what. My Rider almost getting eaten for no good reason. I wound up captured and forced to lead the humans to the Tyrant." He shuddered slightly. The feeling of being trapped, tied down and heading towards a guaranteed doom had been some of the worst moments in his life. "My Rider came though. He helped free me and together we killed the Tyrant. But as swift as I was, I wasn't fast enough. He fell from my back, was injured in the flames, whether by them directly or my grip on him, I have never known." He regarded Beneficence out of the corner of his eye. "That would be the longer story."

"And you stayed there?" Beneficence pressed, sitting upright, radiating interest.

"For five generations afterward as well." He replied evenly. "My Rider, my Hiccup worked to teach his children how to operate the fin he'd made for me. He was upset at the idea of me being unable to fly without him. I was upset at the idea of letting anyone else on my back, but since he'd become so agitated, I put up with it while he lived taking to the air with one or another of his offspring. Some were better at the controls than others, and I really didn't mind them on the whole, but all of them felt wrong."

"I was there at his bedside when he breathed his last, surrounded by his children and grandchildren and their dragons just outside. The grief I felt, it was crushing. I left and fended for myself for a bit in the woods of Berk, the sight of any human seeming to hurt, knowing they weren't _my_ Hiccup. After that I refused to allow his children on my back. I could duck and dodge with the best of them, on the ground as well as in the air. Even if one of the children managed to get the harness on, I would simply sit and refuse to go into the air. It hurt, letting the chance to feel the wind slip away, but not as bad as it would have felt to have someone wrong on my back while remembering the one who felt right. Eventually they learned, which given their inherent stubbornness only took about a year, two for the really stubborn hold-outs. Instead of being ridden, I became the family confidant. Listening to the littlest ones and how they learned the language had taught me as well, so I listened to all of them. I was the one the children came to, to show off new skills they'd learned, whether it was in fighting or crafting or dragon riding. I was the one they came to when they needed to hide their tears from the rest of the village. It wasn't the best life, but it was _a_ life." Here he paused.

He hunched down even further, even as he dug his claws deeply into the earth below him. "Then the outlanders came. Initially they claimed it was a trading mission, though our humans were confused why none of us dragons accepted them. They smelled of fear and death. Both their own and others. They watched all of the dragons warily, despite my human's reassurances. They left, for the moment. But they came back. This time with many ships, many warriors. We dragons who lived on the island had picked up human speech, at least a little, others quite well, but what the attackers were yelling was purest insanity. Things about devils and satin, or something like that. Nonsense." He raised his head proudly then. "Our humans defeated them easily. It was strange though. They aimed at the dragons more than the humans, despite there being fewer of us. And then they came back, again and again, worse than we'd ever come after the humans. They continued to focus on killing dragons, though they didn't hesitate to kill humans. So many dragons hadn't been killed since the Tyrant died. After the third or fourth wave, so many dragons had been lost, as well as humans, the humans began to urge us to leave. I saw one sorrowful youngster pushing at his Gronkle to get him to retreat to our nesting grounds. My Rider's kin wanted me to leave too, but knew that placing me on the island where the nest was would simply let me die slowly. Most dragons left there to hunt, and unlike humans who honored me for actions in the past, they wouldn't care and would see no reason to share their hunt."

The Night Fury got back up and paced again. "One of the Great-great grandsons of my Rider decided to bring me to the lands in the West. His mother had been from a tribe who had gone there, so he knew the way. He persuaded me to get on a boat and set sail for that land." He paused again and looked at the sky. "We made it to that land, an island to the west. He left me, telling me he would return once the attacker had been dealt with." He settled again. "I never saw any of them again." He huddled down, wrapping his tail tightly around himself in misery.

"I told you I understood your pain, yes?" Beneficence asked, sitting there calm but confident.

The Night fury looked at the other dragon, stretching casually in a draconic version of a shrug.

"My people have been around humans for centuries, millennia even. They honored us and we would occasionally advise them," Beneficence began.

"Advise? What, did you perform a pantomime of what you wanted them to do?" He asked snorting. He'd learned that Hiccup had been very observant of his moods and desires, but at points he'd still had to grab the young man by his clothes and drag him where he wanted him. And trying to get anything across to any other Viking was an exercise in futility and frustration.

"My kind was gifted with the greatest vocal range of any dragon. We first began by trying to mimic the humans out of amusement, but quickly realized that we could learn their language truly and began to have real discussions. The humans kept gardens for us to stay in, beautiful places to relax, to play. They brought us wonderful food. It was the usual thing for a dragon or two to descend to the gardens and spend perhaps a decade or two enjoying the pampering. My mother however enjoyed the humans company a great deal. I believe she stayed once for over a century while she debated over some point with a number of philosophers. She decided when she was heavy with my egg that she would lay it in the human's garden. The humans were thrilled and honored by her choice. She was fed the finest meats as she tended my egg, fussed and fawned over." He paused and shifted slightly. "As was I, once I hatched. I believe I ate my first meal off of a solid gold plate. I was a spoiled little beast. The gardens I lived in were where the humans now call Xi'an, but I knew as Chang'an. It was where the Emperor of the time held court. It was an interesting place, yet after thirty years I wanted to see more than just the area where the nobility lived. I was far too young to fly, my scales had just barely hardened," Beneficence said and ducked his head, his tail twisting in embarrassment, "so I snuck out. The walls were quite impressive to humans, but not much of a barrier to a curious hatchling. I wandered the city outside." He cocked his head to regard the Night Fury.

"It was strange, none of the people from the outside would look at me. I wandered the streets, poking my nose everywhere, and everywhere the people would avert their eyes, turn their faces from me. It was considered dangerous to look at those who outranked them. As a dragon I outranked everyone, though the noble class was only little below me. Then, suddenly, a child saw me. My Jiang. He looked directly at me in awe as I stared back and felt a connection, though as young as I was I thought nothing of it. The two of us played the rest of the day, racing about, climbing things that shouldn't have been climbed, causing all sorts of chaos.

Eventually the Guard found us, I doubt it was hard as much of a fuss as we'd gotten into. That was when the trouble started. They tried to separate us and it went badly. The guards didn't dare level their spears at me, yet I kept getting in their way when they tried to aim at my human. Finally someone with both rank and sense decided to rule that the boy be brought back with us. Once I was safe in the gardens there were a number of discussions among the humans. I paid no attention, preferring to show my home to my friend. I remember my mother being extremely annoyed at me for getting out. Eventually the humans decided to allow my human to stay, more because they couldn't figure out how to separate us, rather than their choice. He was simply one of many orphans who had been living on the street, no one noticed when he lived there, no one noticed he left.

Beneficence sighed and looked to the skies. "It was wonderful, even as my friend aged, that simply meant he came up with greater ideas for mischief. But all good things come to an end. He was becoming older when a fever came through and took him with a good sized portion of the court. I was devastated, it felt as though my soul had been torn in two…" He tilted his head at the Night Fury, "I believe you may understand what I went through? I spent the time feeling utterly miserable, my mother who was still watching over me, though she had left at times, was frantic at my distress. The humans who tended us tried to fuss over me to improve my mood, but their presence, human, but not my human, was grating and irritating.

"It wasn't until an Elder among our race came to the gardens that I learned what was wrong with me, or at least what I've come to accept as an answer. He had wandered among other clans in the eastern areas, where we lived nearer to humans than in your territories. He spoke of soul bonds. He told me such things were mostly unheard of between dragons, only existing in stories and tales as few of us as there were. He also told of how, if not common, they were more known by humans. Whether they were siblings who were deeply connected, friends who had seemed to recognize each other the moment they met, or lovers who had fallen at first sight, it was known among humans. However, among humans when they died, both halves ended up forgetting about the connection they had shared and it dissolved. It would be recognized if they met each other, but other wise they would never know what they had once shared. And then there were the connections between humans and dragons. Unheard of in the West, where both sides avoided or fought each other, and rare even in our territory. These were the ones he had studied, and most of his ideas came from. He told me that when the human side of the partnership died, the connection stayed strong, as long as the dragon lived. If both died together, or shortly after the other, it would be as if both were human and the connection would be lost until they found each other again. He told me that being young I should be patient and wait.

"And you simply believed that?" The Night Fury spat as he shifted into a position that showed both disbelief and disgust. "A story, a tale to soothe you and you simply lapped it up?"

"No," the other dragon replied. "I shrieked that he was a liar, that he didn't understand how much I had cared about Jiang, that another human wouldn't, couldn't replace him. Eventually everyone left me alone. I stayed with the humans because it seemed easier to remember Jiang when surrounded by the areas I had spent time with him."

The Night Fury sighed and lay down. "And why are you telling me this? I understand the pain of losing one as well as you, I see that, but why all the rest?"

"Because I met my human again," Beneficence replied immediately. "Or rather I met her all over. She was a sent to the palace by her noble parents as a concubine for the Emperor at the time. She was perhaps thirteen at the time. I had never lost the habit I had learned from Jiang of sneaking around to see what was going on, and still looked in on any new person to the court. I spotted her in a room, and rude as I was, simply stuck my head in to get a good look. And was stunned, as badly as if I had crashed headfirst into a mountain. Her maids ran from the room, screaming and shrieking uselessly, while she, standing there in the voluminous clothing, was stock still staring at me. Her mouth was open just a little and her eyes were wide and in that glance, the emptiness within me vanished." He observed that his audience jerked a bit at his words.

"It terrified me at first." Beneficence added. "I was afraid that I would forget my Jiang, that she would try to move into my heart and shove him out, so I fled. It was several days before I saw her again, in a formal garden that time. She was dressed as beautifully as before, and this time there was no fear in her gaze as she saw me. She came up and gave me a full formal bow and greeted me with extreme respect, for all that I'd crashed into her rooms before. I was charmed by her and came close only to hear her hiss in a way that wouldn't carry to anyone else 'Next time you stick your nose in my rooms I will smack you with a fan.' I actually laughed at that, scaring the other guests in the garden, and looking at her I could see the spark of mischief she kept firmly hidden under propriety most of the time."

"This isn't to say she was Jiang reborn. She was quieter, more contemplative. She'd been raised knowing her duties to family and court, unlike Jiang who had simply been appointed to be my companion. Once she realized my favor gave her protection from her rivals, she became very canny as well, even ruthless at times. No one dared slip her poison, or hire someone to get rid of her while I was seen to follow her about. It was from her that I began to really develop an interest in human affairs and politics."

"She lived a long full life. Fought all the way up to the Emperor's side and was crowned Empress. Delivered four sons and a number of daughters. When she died, the emptiness was there again, just as bad as before. This time though was different, as I had hope. I had met my human's soul twice, there was a chance that it could happen again."

"Over the millennia I re-met my human several times. The longest wait was three hundred and sixteen years, the shortest forty-nine. There was a delivery boy, a soldier, a merchant's daughter. Different people, but the same connection, a recognition on both sides at first sight."

"You have met the same soul over and over? Then why have I been alone for so long. It has been over a thousand years." The Night Fury snarled. "Why are you so special?"

"Although I didn't always stay in the same area, I was always surrounded by humans, I was easy to find if someone felt drawn to me. How far have you traveled from your home?"

The Night Fury got up and began to pace again. "Why leave then? Aren't you throwing away a chance at seeing your human again?"

"That is another story." Beneficence replied, curling in a threatening position, warning the other not to push it.

The Night Fury continued to pace, his tail flicked hard enough in agitation that he could've knocked a human back several feet. He rustled his wings and seemed to mutter to himself. Stopping he faced the other dragon.

"Do you think this one was my Rider?" He asked.

"How would I know?" Beneficence replied. "You should know better than I. What would prove it to you?"

"Flight." The Night Fury replied shortly. "I will never accept him unless he feels as right in the air as my Rider did."

* * *

Long Freakin A/N for a long freakin chapter of backstory:Just out of curiosity I began to research Chinese history to get an idea of where abouts in the past I would be placing Beneficence (I originally was planning on the Forbidden City in Beijing, but thought, wait China has been a country for a long freakin' time, I know there's probably been a number of capital cities in their past) and decided he was born sometime within the time of the Western Han Dynasty in a garden in Chang'an. He moved around as Dynasties changed, people were more careful of his safety at times than other humans, since he became to be seen as a connection to their past. During various times when there was civil wars and so forth, whoever had Beneficence within their territory used that as a claim that they were the legitimate ruler of everybody. Which is the main reason when the Imperial dynasties fell to the Republic, the remaining supporters wanted to get Beneficence out of the country to deny him to the new Leadership in their legitimacy.

The war Toothless describes I see as a given from the mostly Christian leadership of most of Europe to the threat of the Vikings uniting with dragons, basically they decided on a Northern Crusade as well as Middle East one. I summarily decided that Hiccup and his people weren't the earliest Vikings, the well developed art and so forth showed in the movie could be seen to support that. As such I'm saying they existed sometime after 793AD when Vikings destroyed the monastery at Lindisfarne. That incident is the main reason Vikings had such a bloodthirsty reputation. Given the easy way the middle age people saw Satan/the Devil in anything (red hair, cats), I can't help but think that a number of European dragon species would've been driven to extinction in most places as they were seen as evil. Think about St. George and the Dragon. Between Vikings (evil) and Dragons (evil) if rumors of the two uniting reached the southern areas, I can see them doing a pre-emptive attack to get rid of the predicted danger.

This isn't meant to be a slam on any religion/creed/what-have-you. Simply a vague daydream of how superstitious peoples would respond to others who embodied everything that they saw as evil.

And dear god this is a long Authors Note, for a long chapter full of backstory. Good god I didn't think I would ever finish typing this chapter up. Plot picks up again in the next chapter, promise. The two dragons would not shut up once they got going, sorry I hope you weren't bored. I mentioned how this thing has been poking me in my brain since sometime near the end of April. Apparently alternate history or how dragons would've affected it is what my brain likes to think of when bored. Please don't take any mangling of any national history personally.


	5. Chapter 4

Diclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

"This is the final stop on our tour." Stacy said as they pulled up to an ornate entryway set in a blank white wall. "This wall holds the garden of one of our most important residents. Heavenly Beneficence Descending at Dawn is a rare dragon known as the Chinese Imperial Lord. According to Chinese records, Beneficence resided among the courts of their royalty for over a millennium. During the revolution in China, which deposed the emperors, several supporters of the old regime had Beneficence moved to Taiwan. Later, in the 1950's when there was a great deal of tension between the two countries, Taiwan asked the U.S. if Beneficence could be sent to this park for safety. Rocky Mountain Dragon Preserve, being one of the oldest preserve, was already known for our care of the dragons in our territory. There were a great deal of negotiations, including ones to allow the clearing of land to make this garden within the park. Finally in 1954 Beneficence arrived and settled here as though he'd been born here. He and the garden are tended by the descendants of those who supposedly tended the gardens of the Emperors back in China.

She smiled and looked over the bus of people who were looking at the gates. "You are free to enter and walk in the garden, as long as you remain on the paths. Also, do not take anything, by which I mean a leaf, a flower, a stone, nothing from the garden. Similarly, don't leave anything there. Ignoring either of these rules could result in a bad reaction from Beneficence. Otherwise he will likely leave you alone."

People began filing off the bus. Mike's dad grabbed him by the collar of his shirt before he could dash inside.

"Easy there," his dad said, mildly chiding. "If the dragon's there I'm sure you'll get a chance to see him."

Mike grinned up at his dad, even though he was a bit annoyed at having to wait. His sister was the last one off the bus and seemed smug that Mike was still standing with the rest of the family, rather than being allowed in ahead.

The garden, once you passed the gates was gorgeous. Parts of forest had been cleared, while others had either been left alone or trained into pleasing views. The open space was filled with both lawns, which were kept smooth and as green as Mike had only seen in gardening commercials, and ponds. Going over a delicate bridge he saw fish swimming in them. Bamboo had been planted, as well as flowerbeds. The path was a meandering ribbon through the entirety. A large pagoda was set off center of the whole of the garden, with a pond that almost encircled it. A willow was planted near that pond. Other trees were around, not that he knew what they were. He heard the voice of Stacy talking about the symbolism of this and that but he wasn't really paying attention.

And then there was the dragon. He was a ways away, back from the path, but in clear view. He wasn't the largest dragon they'd seen that day, but, except for Mike, he was the closest. A deep yellow gold was his main color, with a bright, even at the distance, sapphire blue edging each scale. His scales were unusual compared to an European or American dragon, whose scales were normally pebbly, similar to most lizards. Beneficence's scales were more like a snake, or perhaps a fish, large circular looking plates that slipped and slid over each other as he moved. They looked like plate armor, yet glinted in the light like jewelry. Mike guessed at the size of the dragon by comparing him to the trees near him, some of the scales were bigger than his own head.

People were wandering around taking pictures of everything. Mike overheard Stacy mentioning that this garden was recognized as being done in classical style, and many visitors to this park came just to see this garden. People took pictures of Beneficence, sometimes with a person standing in front so they could get themselves in the shot with the dragon. Others posed themselves so it looked like they were petting the dragon or carrying him due to the perspective. Beneficence lay there looking bored.

Suddenly the dragon's head turned to look at the back wall. He gracefully got up and wandered to the far wall and easily climbed over it. The rangers who were discreetly stationed around to prevent people from doing something stupid seemed startled at the dragon's leaving. With Beneficence gone most of the visitors lost interest and everybody trooped back to the bus.

When they got back to the campsite and main Ranger Station Mike immediately begged to be able to go to the station, where the gift shop was. It took a bit of work, his mother was still worried about wild dragons, but his dad was on his side pointing out that there had been no incidents of attacks within the campgrounds. Finally getting free, Mike dashed to the shop, his allowance from the past several weeks burning a hole in his pocket. He quickly found Fennel's book and plunked the money to pay for it on the counter to buy it. He wandered out the store, into the main public area of the station with his nose already in it.

He skipped the early parts of it, descriptions of Fennels early work in Africa. He had been a big game hunter, but had generally avoided the game preserves, only going after the animals that had become a danger to humans, rather than ones simply kept for sport. When he got to the parts that actually described the hunt to track the Night Fury he read avidly. Fennel painted a picture of an intelligent adversary, one who could anticipate his actions or plot ways of thwarting him. One scene he described was when spending a day having multiple close sightings of the Night Fury, only to see it spring and glide across a gorge they'd managed to corral it against and then see the impudent dragon look across the gap, waters swirling between them, and seem to shrug before flicking his tail and disappearing into the foliage across the way. Unfortunately for the humans, the nearest bridge had been a six-hour hike behind them. Mike made a note to look up some of the words Fennel had used to describe the dragon after he wrote about that. One line stood out to him, "The learned men tell me that a dragon has no more thoughts than a lion, I call them liars all."

It was fascinating to read and he wandered through the exhibits set up in the public area. He looked at the ones on the dragons, which included pictures of species they hadn't seen during the tour. There were even pictures of the Night Fury, clearer ones than he'd seen in most books. None of them managed to show the sheer impressiveness, the amazement he'd felt at seeing the dragon up close.

He wandered over to the Help desk, which was staffed at the moment by another young woman whose name badge read "Belinda" who smiled down at him as he approached.

"Do you have a question?" She asked, friendly like everyone who worked in the park seemed to be.

"Um… Is there anything else on Night Furies? Like, what do they like to eat, what places do they like to live, stuff like that?" Mike asked her, scuffing a shoe on the tile, feeling embarrassed at pestering an adult he didn't know.

"Well, it depends on if you mean European Night Furies, or our own Loki." She replied. "There isn't much known about the European ones except they tend to live in the northern mountain ranges of Sweden, Norway and Finland, but have been seen as far east as parts of Siberia and as far west as Iceland. Loki on the other hand seems to have no clear territory of his own, he's been spotted just about everywhere, and doesn't seem to stay in any area permanently. I'm not sure if a study has been done of the wild ones diet, but Loki has been seen eating just about anything he can catch. He's been recorded even bringing down deer at times, mostly through stealth."

"So he likes deer?" Mike asked. The answer felt wrong somehow. Off.

She shrugged. "As far as we have seen."

Mike smiled and thanked her. He left the station, still reading his book, his thoughts in a whirl. He knew that the Night Fury would like something else. Fish maybe? He stopped in his tracks. Yes, fish… A thought occurred to him and he began trying to work out what he wanted to do. Dad had brought fishing poles and had gotten bait at the shop they'd gotten their groceries before they arrived. He'd heard his mom complaining that he'd put it in the fridge. If he got up even before his dad, difficult but not impossible, and went out and caught some… Unlikely as hell he knew the rest of the plan was…

-xXx—

He woke the next morning from one of the clearest flying dreams he'd had in a long time. He remembered black wings, beating to either side, diving and soaring, he would swear he felt the wind on his face. As he blinked at the beeping noise from his wristwatch the dream faded. He half wanted to shove it under his pillow since it was oh-god-it's-what-time-in-the-morning?, but the memory of what he'd planned yesterday caused him to wake-up further. He snuck out of the room he shared with his brother and sister (and oh how she'd been pissed to find out the cabin only had two bedrooms), carefully pulling on his shirt and pants. Once the door was closed he quickly slipped on his shoes, peering in the darkness to find where his dad had stashed the fishing poles.

By the time he got down to the lake edge it was just before dawn, the sky already becoming light to the east. He wandered out on the pier that was available and saw he wasn't the only person there. A number of yawning men stood with their poles out sipping coffee and casting their lines. Mike had learned to fish one summer from his maternal grandpa, so he didn't fumble too badly at baiting and casting. As the sun began to peek over the mountain horizon several of the other fishers began to get bites. Mike waited as patiently as he could. The first bite was so sudden he almost lost his pole as it jerked in his hands. After that success it wasn't too long until he had three fish laying next to him. He made short work of removing the hooks before picking up the fish and carrying them off. Juggling three fish while being on the look out for any other people who might be up at this ungodly early hour was not easy. He carefully navigated the campground in the dawning light, hesitating as he reached the tree line. No fence, nothing to keep him from going on. He tried to think positively, while being sure that the entirety of his plan proved that yes, he was completely crazy.

Mike walked, or rather stumbled, through the woods. He was about as stealthy as a blind elephant walking across bubble wrap. The sun still hadn't risen very far, leaving the ground very dim beneath the trees, and him unable to see the myriad sticks, stones, holes, and other would-be hazards of the woods. His shoes were soaked from slipping down a slight incline into a little stream. He had managed to keep a hold of the fish, though he was now covered in scales, and beginning to smell a bit fishy. Whatever kind of fish they were. He wasn't really sure, other than he knew they weren't catfish. Trout? Bass? Weren't those what you found in lakes? Caught up in his thoughts and trying not to fall on his face, he didn't really pay much attention to where he was going. Or any attention at all, he realized coming to a stop.

"_Oh shit"_ was on repeat in his head as he turned around and realized he was too far in to the woods to see the campgrounds. He hadn't even done something like mark the trees he'd passed so he'd know where he'd come from. What the hell had he been thinking? Here he was in the middle of the woods that had dragons in it, carrying fish in some demented hope that he would see the most elusive dragon ever one more time. His mother was right, his shrink had been right. He was nuts.

He heard a loud snap behind him and froze. Oh god, he thought to himself, he was going to be killed and his sister was going to go ballistic. He shut his eyes and turned around, cringing in expectation.

Nothing happened. No sudden pain of teeth ripping into him, claws slashing. He scrunched his face up, maybe he was acting like an idiot over a deer moving through the brush a ways off. That was far more likely than a dragon after all. Even as far as he'd walked it was still fairly close to the campgrounds. From what he'd read in the visitors center the dragons generally didn't come that close. Since he was still living he was probably standing here, holding some fish that were starting to get pretty rank with his eyes closed, looking like the biggest, weirdest dork on the planet. He opened his eyes.

"Aaaaiieeaahhh!" He screamed and jerked backwards, landing in the dirt, fish falling on top of him. There, no more than five feet away, was the Night Fury. The dragon cocked his head as he looked at the human sprawled in front of him. It was the freakin' dragon! Mike's thought process had gone completely offline, his brain chattering mindlessly about _wow!_ Cool! _Holy crap I'm not dead!_ Why is that? This close he could see charcoal grey patterns along the creature's body, reminding him of pictures of black panthers or jaguars. The eyes, a startling color right on the knife's edge between yellow and green, seemed to glow in the dark face. The dragon sniffed at him, its pupils wide in its eyes, body relaxed.

Mike blinked, trying to get his mind in gear. A faint breeze brought the smell of the fish to front and center, they were definitely starting to get whiffy. He looked at the three fish in his lap, his arms covered with little scales that had rubbed off. The three fish, which had seemed like a lot, at least effort-wise, now seemed like barely a snack to the beast lying a bit away from him. He scooped up the fish, sitting up from his sprawled position and hefted the fish, offering them to the Night Fury.

The dragon sat upright, then got to its feet easily. It padded over, far more silent than Mike had been on the leaf and stick covered ground, as though it was gliding. The wide chest and stocky legs looked strong and Mike could see the muscles shifting under the dark, smooth hide. The dragon was only inches away if he lifted his hands a bit more he could touch it. The Night Fury opened its mouth, hovering over his hands full of fish. Mike blinked. No teeth… Huh?

But the book had definitely mentioned the dragon having teeth. It had actually caught one of the trackers arms and broken it swiftly in its teeth at the end of the quest to track him down, a vicious reaction to being cornered. But here? The dragon right next to him, mouth open and nothing but gums visible. Maybe the dragon was sick? That thought made him feel ill, not wanting to think about the dragon being injured or dying. The huge head darted down and Mike would deny to his dying day that the sound he made at the sudden movement was anything but a squeak. The Night Fury gulped two of the fish straight down, then tossed the third in the air. There was a loud _snap! _And Mike's jaw dropped again at the sight of teeth springing out of the gums to bite the last fish in half, before catching the pieces to swallow. Retractable teeth? Holy cats, that was something he'd never heard of anywhere.

"Toothless." He murmured, and blinked at a wave of dizziness. Toothless was right/not right at the same time. Close enough? He felt like everything was spinning and blinked and carefully rubbed at his eyes, grimacing at the fishy smell on his hands. He looked up at the dragon, who was standing stock-still, staring at him. His eyes were wide open, and feet planted firmly, claws dug slightly into the ground. Mike smiled up at the dragon.

"Toothless." He said, this time louder and more firmly, feeling the rightness. That was the dragon's name. Only someone he trusted would he approach without baring his fangs. The Night Fury looked tense now, about to spring away at any second, pupils narrow in the wide eyes. He could see tremors across the body as the dragon's nose twitched and flared.

The dragon, Toothless Mike thought, his name is Toothless, came closer. Mike had no idea why he knew that name was right, or almost right, but he knew it the same way he knew his own. He decided to say screw it to anything that happened now that any other time he would consider crazy or insane. Hell, he'd brought fish out, wandering in a woods, god only knows where exactly he was, in order to find a dragon that could've easily eaten him as well as the fish. Yeah, he'd left crazy a while back and was now deep into insane now. And he couldn't be happier.

The two flexible appendages on Toothless' head (Ears? He wondered) were straight up as the dragon approached him again. Mike found himself involuntarily tensing. He was almost certain the Night Fury wouldn't hurt him, it was the _almost_ part that worried him. The certainty that he wouldn't be hurt was also somewhat unnerving. _Why_ was he so sure? Toothless' head was as close as it had been when grabbing the fish, and a part of Mike was telling him to reach up and touch, the rest telling him that this dragon had been known to hurt humans who came close, causing him to freeze.

"Hillk, hillk, hluk, hluk…" That sound, combined with the jerky motions the dragon made, had Mike trying to scramble backwards. What was he doing? It didn't seem like a growl or a threat…

"Hluk, hluk…Hyack…" Half a fish was deposited in his lap. The head of the fish and a good portion of the flesh behind it lay there, glistening with dragon spit and other substances. Fish with a strange bitter-nasty smell wafted up to Mike's nose and he swallowed rapidly trying not to throw up. The dragon had retreated and now lay at ease regarding him. Toothless had both wings folded lightly along his sides and his eyes were only half open, pupils narrow. Despite the apparent look of relaxation Mike knew, _knew_, this was some sort of test. If he didn't do whatever the dragon expected him to, well he was sure he wouldn't be attacked or anything, he'd just never see the Night Fury again, that was certain in his mind.

But what the hell did the dragon expect him to do? He looked up at where Toothless lay, and was sure the dragon hadn't so much as twitched since the last time he'd looked. He looked back down at the fish and cursed, quickly lifting it as the sliminess had begun to soak into his jeans.

He began to try and think this out logically. He'd brought fish to the dragon, the dragon had eaten the fish. Then the dragon came over and yacked a chunk of fish on him. Maybe the dragon didn't like fish heads? But why only one, not three? Wait, he fed the dragon, the dragon gave some back…

Oh no,no,no,no…No. He began to swallow quickly again. He liked sushi, well he liked cooked sushi. California roll, no problem. Shrimp tempura roll, he was in line for it right away. Raw fish over rice? No thanks. Raw fish covered in, here his mind skittered away… No, no, a thousand times no.

But in order to not lose a fragile connection? He looked at the Night Fury again. Toothless looked back, tail tip flicking. Irritation? Impatience?

Mike sighed and looked at the fish in his hands. A fly buzzed around the chunk, trying to land on one of the dead eyes. He wished he had another hand, a clean one, to pinch his nose shut with. He lifted the fish up to his mouth. Looking over he saw that the dragon was now watching him even closer. Mike looked back at the dragon. "If I get tapeworms from this, I'm coming after you." he told the dragon. He breathed out and took a bite of the fish.

It was horrible. Slippery slick raw fish combined with an absolutely nasty bitter slickness overlaying it he tried not to think about. Dragon spit, his subconscious helpfully reminded him. _Hurgh_ went his stomach. He began to swallow quickly, feeling a burn at the back of his throat. He had to blink rapidly as tears came to his eyes while he fought his stomach. When he was in control he looked up and yelped.

Toothless was back, right next to him practically nose to nose. Mike reached up, slowly. He wanted, needed to touch. The dragon flinched back, ears flattening against his head. Mike paused, his fingers curling down to him palm.

He bit his lip, chewing slightly at the bottom one. He looked down again since the dragon had come close when he hadn't looked directly at him. He left his hand out hopefully. There was a pause, he saw the dragon's claws dig in the dirt and he feared the Night Fury would simply leave.

Then the touch. Warm, hard smoothness of scales against his fingers. Mike's head jerked up at the sensation. Joy and amazement swamped the lingering nausea he'd felt, wiping it away. He grinned at the dragon, his fingers curling to scratch at the head he was touching.

"Hi Toothless, it's nice to meet you." He said, beaming at the dragon. The Night Fury shifted his body to partly curl around the boy. Mike felt comfortable near the dragon, at ease as though they'd known each other for years. He remembered his dreams, flying, black wings, togetherness… Mike shook his head and yawned. The early morning, he checked his watch and was surprised to see it was only seven thirty, coupled with the emotions, good and bad, left him suddenly feeling tired. He yawned again, thinking about how he needed to find his way back to the campsite. He began to push himself up, only to have Toothless butt him gently with his head, knocking him back against the dragon's side. The Night Fury then raised a wing, spreading it slightly, before curling firmly around him, the wing acting as a shade against the now bright sun.

Mike knew it was stupid to feel so safe leaning against a creature that could easily kill him. It was crazy, insane and so forth, but right now? Crazy had gotten him this far. Insane had led him to almost everything he'd dreamed of. He really didn't care what anybody else would think of his decisions so far. He leaned back against the smooth side of the dragon, curling up a bit. The sound of Toothless' breathing quickly lulled him back to sleep. He didn't even notice the way the dragon continued to watch him, even as he slept.

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-xXx—

Wow, I didn't think I'd ever finish typing this up! I hope everybody likes this chapter. The next chapter is Toothless' opinion on what happened here. I have Lottery and this story tag-teaming me on what wants to be written next. I have an idea on both, but not enough hands to write them at the same time.


	6. Chapter 5

Toothless watched the boy curled against his side. It was both comforting and hurtful to feel the warm body resting there. Comfort from the memories of what he considered the best times, when he and his Rider would fly for the joy of it, only to land and have Hiccup curl up against him in the same spot, grinning at him after a wonderful day. Hurt from the memories of loneliness after Hiccup died, of the years after he was separated from even the descendants of his Rider.

It baffled him that he'd allow the boy so close, so quickly. After talking to Beneficence he'd wanted to run again, to the other side of the park. Never see the little human who confused him ever again. He hadn't though. He'd chosen to stay, even go closer to the area where the humans stayed. He knew it was stupid. The likelihood of the boy coming out of there, alone, was practically nonexistent. And then, today, the very next day, he'd caught the scent of a human in the woods. One with fish. A very strange scent, and more than enough to have him carefully track where it was coming from.

To see the human who had so confused him the day before wandering through the woods stunned him. This wasn't supposed to happen. He may have wanted, just a little maybe, to see the human again. Prove that it was just a mistake, that nothing had happened when he'd seen him yesterday. That it was just the years of loneliness messing with his mind. He figured he'd see him again, perhaps on another tour, and realize that he was just sun-struck or something. Instead, at the first sight of the boy he wanted, needed to go closer. He began to head towards the apparently oblivious boy, not really paying attention to where he was putting his feet. His absentmindedness wound up with him stepping on a stick like a clumsy hatchling. Seeing the boy freeze at the sound amused him and he carefully picked his way over, moving far more silently now that he was paying attention. He could smell the wonderful fresh fish now. He so rarely had any now. Incapable of diving on them in surprise to catch some, he now only got a few when he felt like harassing a bear or other dragon who had caught some. Stealing was so demeaning he didn't do it often, feeling embarrassed when he did.

Watching the boy he saw him turn around in one spot. He moved quietly to place himself right in front of the human. He noticed the boy's eyes were closed and so used that to his advantage when coming closer. Seeing the boy's face make the oddest contortions, it was all he could do not to snort. And when the human opened his eyes and shrieked, falling backwards, it took all the control he had to keep from actually snickering. It was only the thought that the boy wouldn't recognize such sounds that really helped get himself under control.

Seeing the boy as they stared at each other was so very unnerving. He had wanted to get a glimpse of the human again, just so he could prove to himself that there was no "spark", no "connection" like Beneficence spoke of. That such things were nothing more than the other dragon's hope and loneliness warping his senses. But seeing the other again, so closely this time… He could try to deny it, and doing so _hurt_ so much, but he knew he felt that connection. He tilted his head, trying to figure out _why?_ Why this human, why now? Why so long?

Then the boy had picked up the fish from his lap and held them out to him. If Toothless had known the word he would've called it déjà vu. The picture of being offered fish in the past clashed with the now and his head hurt from all the confusion within him. He got up, coming close to the boy. He planned on flashing his teeth, intimidate the human with a threatening display the way he behaved towards any human now. But looking at the boy he couldn't do it. Seeing the boy looking at him with nothing more than awe as he approached, something within him told him to pull in his teeth as he snatched the fish from the boy's hands. With two of the fish swallowed he then tossed the last, flashing his teeth out to snap it in half before eating it. He certainly didn't want the boy to think him weak or harmless. He was powerful, he thought arrogantly, brave, graceful, impressive…

"Toothless." He heard, jarring him out of his preening. He stared at the boy. While he wasn't as fluent in this human language as he'd been in his Rider's, he'd still learned it, if somewhat patchily. He'd never realized how annoying it would be to go from understanding humans to not knowing what they were babbling about after he learned to understand one group. It had driven him insane that humans had so many languages. Dragons had one language in common, though there were a number of different dialects and accents. He'd learned the new language as it was always good to know what "You circle around to the right, I'll try and corner 'im from the left," meant. But the word the human had murmured…

"Toothless." The boy repeated, looking at him more confidently. It had terrified him. He recognized the words that made up the name. The right words, if not the right language, it didn't matter as it meant the same as the name he had set aside when he came to this land. He forgot all that he had been thinking about himself and his bravery and simply wanted to flee. Flee this strange human that brought to mind long lost memories. Run far away from such a being that immediately _knew his name._

No human had called him that or anything close since he had left the island. Devil, beast, dragon, oh a whole host of other things. But not that, why would it occur to any human to call him that? _And why didn't you threaten him with your fangs? How many other humans have you ever not done that to?_ Whispered in his head traitorously. He hated Beneficence for a moment for speaking such nonsense as he had. Such things as he had said were only stories, myths, something told to entertain silly human offspring and hatchlings. The fact that he felt such things was bizarre, it didn't happen. He watched th human laying there. He needed to test the boy, to see how the boy would act, if the human would do something he would recognize without him giving hints or encouragements.

Cautiously approaching the boy again he began to regurgitate a piece of fish. He had originally done this with his Rider to see if the strange little Viking would peaceably take his direction in something harmless. The fact that his Hiccup had actually dropped his weapon when he had noticed it had already made him willing to look a bit closer at the boy. And the faces the human had made had been so vastly amusing.

The boy's expression as he deposited the piece of fish was fairly amusing. He then retreated again to lie down and see what the other did. He had coaxed Hiccup through the acceptance of the food, curious to see how far he could push the human. This time he kept quiet, not moving a bit, wanting to see what the boy did. His stillness was complete.

The boy kept looking between him and the fish. The way his head bobbed between the two was annoying. He waited for him to throw the fish away. His tail began to twitch in annoyance as the time extended, why wouldn't the boy simply throw it away?

Then the strange human actually bit into the fish and swallowed. The shock of seeing that had him on his feet instantaneously. That wasn't supposed to happen! The boy was supposed to throw the fish away, he could then use that sliver of rationality to prove to himself that Beneficence was all gas and no spark and leave feeling content that in no way was this human connected to him. Even his Hiccup had needed to be walked through what he'd wanted. What human just guessed something like that? He began to sneak up on the boy again. He settled only a few inches from the boy, who was swallowing repeatedly and making strange noises. When the boy finally calmed and looked up he saw those unnerving green eyes again. When the boy reached out the centuries of separation made him flinch back, the feeling of betraying his Rider, all of the confusion tangling inside him. Seeing the boy study him, then looking down, dipping his head even as he held his hand out, trusting, forced the dragon into a decision. Maybe he was as insane as Beneficence seemed to be. He nosed the boy's hand, feeling the softness of the touch. Hiccup's hands had been soft compared to his own claws, but his hands had been far harder than this boy's. It was like comparing solid, sturdy leather to fine soft suede. This boy had never worked a forge, never really fought, or really needed to.

He was surprised at the protective feeling he suddenly had. What had the boy been _thinking?_ He obviously didn't know how to navigate the land, his stumbling around had shown that. The idiot had no weapon in an area where most of the residents would see him as a snack, and that wasn't including the dragons!

Toothless found himself becoming indignant at this suicidal little twit. How dare he risk himself so foolishly when he'd just met him. He was a little surprised at the feeling, remembering his vow to Beneficence that he wouldn't recognize the boy as his until he touched the sky. While he still clung to his denial, he could feel the restful feeling just being next to the boy.

Then the boy tried to get up. Maybe to leave and Toothless found himself moving almost before he could think, knocking the boy back and curling around him protectively. It seemed like the right thing to do. Seeing the boy not fight him, but instead curl up against him, awakening long lost memories, felt even better. The sun continued to rise as he fell into contemplation, his eyes almost closed.

Finally the boy stirred. The human's head shot up so fast he wound up smacking his head on one of the vanes of Toothless' wing, which caused him to snort and become fully alert, only to see the boy cursing and rubbing his forehead. At least he assumed it was cursing, he was pretty sure he'd heard some of those words directed his way when he was leading the stupid humans who tracked him down occasionally in circles. Some meanings managed to translate quite well despite the language barrier.

The boy's head swiveled around, eyes widening before he looked directly at Toothless, his smile even more brilliant in the clearer light. Toothless watched as the boy got to his feet and reached towards Toothless' head, slowly and cautiously. Toothless snorted again. If he didn't want the boy to touch him, he never would've allowed it in the first place. Feeling hands running over his head, between the ridges and along his ears was so nice he practically purred. He tilted his head to lead the boy to what had been his favorite places to be scratched. He heard laughter as the boy scratched even harder in those spots before he slowed, giving Toothless a pat and pulling away to look around. The dragon watched the boy chew his lip a bit, muttering something. He caught the word "campsite." Wasn't that the word for where all the humans generally stayed? Apparently unlike his Hiccup who had known his island, top to bottom and sideways, this human had no idea where he was. Well, as much as he didn't want to, he could certainly lead the boy back.

He then nudged the boy in a direction. The boy looked at him, startled at the push and looking worried. Toothless wanted to roll his eyes in exasperation, but simply shoved the boy again in the direction of the "campsite", before walking towards it himself, glancing back to see if the human was bright enough to follow.

The boy's eyes brightened, he had gotten the idea, as he trotted after the dragon. It wasn't like the human had gone very far after all, within a short while Toothless could see the tree line where the forest ended, and so could the human tagging along behind him. The boy paused when he came beside him, hand absently petting Toothless' shoulder.

"Nobody would believe anything I say about this, I feel like it's a dream," the boy remarked. "And I think Ashley would smack me in the head for trying to convince anybody and say I was making it up. 'Mike stop joking around, you know it upsets Mom." The boy (Mike? What kind of name was that?) added in a falsetto. Mike then turned to look Toothless in the eye. "But it isn't a joke. Or a dream. Or if it is, I never want it to end." He sighed. "I wonder if I will be able to see you again. Not that I expect you to understand me." Mike stood up straighter. "I'll come back. I mean, I'll be here for two weeks, I'll sneak away whenever I can. I hope I can see you again."

The boy gave him another scratch, grinning at him before walking towards the edge of the woods. He looked back once, waving, before returning to human life. Toothless stood there, hidden by the trees and undergrowth, before turning and retreating a bit farther away. He sighed to himself, it looked like he was staying near the humans for a bit.

-xXx—

Mike was amazed his feet were still on the ground. He'd practically floated away from the dragon to get back to the campsite, the only thing anchoring him was the worry of how to meet Toothless again. He made a slight detour, finding where he'd stashed his fishing pole behind a rock right on the edge of the woods before heading back to his cabin. His shoes were still slightly damp and squishy making the walk, now that he wasn't distracted by _walking next to a freakin' dragon_, rather unpleasant. He circled around, not wanting to look like he was coming from the woods. On the way he began trying to come up with a story of where he'd been, trying to include as many details of what he looked like at the moment into it, hoping like hell his mother hadn't called the National Guard in looking for him. It was just a little after nine, surely she hadn't worked herself into a froth yet. Ashley on the other hand…

"Where the hell have you been?"

Ah, speak of Satan and she shall appear. He turned to see Ashley bearing down on him, fist clenched, looking like she'd been planning on beating some sense for a while.

"Hey, what's up?" He asked, putting on his most innocent expression, which wasn't the one he used on his parents. This one was far more subtle since Ashley was much better at reading him.

She narrowed her eyes, raking him up and down. "And I'll repeat myself, where have you been?"

Mike began to think quickly, the vague ideas he'd been putting together as a story falling into place. "I heard from one of the park service people that sometimes in the early morning you can see the dragons in flight!" He told her, beaming. "Didn't see any though, which sucks. I figured as long as I didn't leave the campsite I was fine. Then since I was up already I tried to go fishing." Mike shrugged, and waved the fishing pole in his hand. "Must've been too late though, since I didn't catch anything worth keeping. And then I got distracted and wound up slipping and getting my feet wet when trying to release one. I'm lucky I didn't take a full dive." He tried to gauge Ashley's expression, it looked like she was buying it. "Unfortunately I wound up getting all of these scales all over, and now I stink like fish." He finished, looking down at his shirt and arms, which still stank a bit in addition to himself.

"Uh huh. No really, where were you?" She replied.

Mike crossed his arms, feigning irritation before rolling his eyes. "Okay, you caught me. I snuck into the woods to commune with wild dragons. There, happy? Sheesh."

She punched him in the arm. "Brat. If you were pestering the rangers again I'm going to tell them they're free to smack you to make you go away. Now go show Mom you're still in one piece."

As he headed back to the cabin she fell in beside him. She had a smug expression on.

"What, are you my keeper now? I know the way back to the cabin." Mike asked her, not having to fake irritation now. He paused. "Why are you so happy?"

"I got to see dragons up close, while you were off trying to drown yourself in the lake. Way closer than you'll probably ever get. And you missed it." She said gleefully.

Part of him wanted to laugh, closer than him? Yeah right. But doing so would send up flags to Ashley like nobodies business. Instead he looked at her, widening his eyes in dismay. "What? No way!"

"Yup." Ashley replied, crossing her arms. "Some family that's been here a couple of days didn't secure their trash cans properly. A bunch of Common Terrors came in and were rooting through it looking for food. It was a mess." She tilted her head, tapping a finger against her chin. "They kind of reminded me of raccoons or possums. Except for the whole scales and fire-breathing thing." She grinned again at him. "The rangers kept everybody at least ten feet away, but you could see them really good. And you missed it!" She finished, still happy at that fact.

Mike acted as disappointed as he could, anything else would look strange, kicking a stone and slumping his shoulders to show his irritation. He didn't mind though, Ashley's need to brag had made her less observant than usual. Anyway, when it came down to seeing a bunch of Terrors searching through garbage ten feet away, or curling up against Toothless' side for a nap… Yeah, no comparison. He hid a smile at the memory.

Getting back to the cabin he was immediately grabbed by his Mom, who gave him a slight shake for scaring her. Especially when there had been dragons in the campsite. Mike apologized and told her the same story he'd told Ashley, hoping that she wouldn't question him too hard. That might make him trip up on some of the lies. Fortunately his brother came out of the shower, having slept in quite a bit, and began to give him more crap about missing seeing the Terror flock, which helped distract their Mom. Mike put up the disappointed act as his brother mocked him a bit, sulking a bit.

Meanwhile his Mom and Dad were debating what activity they wanted to do. His Dad was arguing for a parasailing place that was at a lake several miles away, with his Mom vowing that she wasn't going anywhere in the air within the tri-state area strapped to a piece of thin nylon, to act like bait for any dragon that saw her dangling there. She was all for horseback riding. According to the brochures, as long as you were a distance from the park and stayed under the trees the dragons wouldn't try to dive and catch you. The argument took a while, but with his Mom, and eventually his sister joining in (She'd never really gotten over her horse phase from when she was ten), his Dad didn't have a chance.

"Um, could I stay here?" Mike asked, when everything had been settled.

"What?" His Mom looked at him, shocked. "No you can't stay here by yourself, the safety risks alone would…"

"I'd just go on the tour, over and over." He pleaded. "You've already filled out the forms, there's nothing on them about minimum age requirements, I checked." He looked up at his Mom, his begging face on. It was important not to sound whiny when going after her weak points as that would only irritate her and to play up the puppy eyes. He was lying like a rug about the requirements, he'd never read the small print. But, then again, probably they hadn't either.

"You're only fourteen, I'm not leaving a fourteen year old alone here." She began, getting a stubborn look in her eye that made Mike stomach sink.

"You let me go to the mall all of the time and that's probably more dangerous. I mean there could be a guy who snatches me there, or get hit by a bus walking there! Look at the tour yesterday, none of the dragons paid any attention to the bus. It's probably safer than horseback riding." Mike added. "I mean the horse could spook, dump me off and crack my skull open." He heard Ashley in the background, "Ew." Careful observation of his Mom showed she was wavering, seeing the tour yesterday had put it in the "safe" category. "I'll just go on the tour and stay in the camp area." Mike promised. Granted if he thought he could slip away again he'd take it in a heartbeat, but he tried to put a sincere front for his mother. "I'll listen to the rangers and everything. You know the reason I wanted to come was to see the dragons, I can do any of the other activities back home, no problem. Please?" Mike finished. He saw that she was probably going to decide in his favor so he went into over the top puppy eyes, until she ruffled his hair, throwing her other hand up.

"Fine, you can stay, but I want to watch you get on the bus, okay bub?" Sha said, looking at him firmly.

Mike immediately became angelic. He agreed and the whole family trooped over, his parents standing to the side as he waited for the next tour bus. Nobody checked to see if he was with anybody, assuming if he was there he was supposed to be. He got on the bus, no problem, and waved to his parents. They waved back before herding his brother and sister to the car.

The tour that day was pretty similar to the first one. They didn't see the South American Deadly Nadders this time, but did see a few species he'd missed the other day. He took a few pictures, since in the excitement of going on the tour the first time he'd forgotten his camera yesterday. It was in his backpack along with a notebook to write about what he had seen. Even with that it was hard to pay attention to the spiel the park service person, Dan this time, was putting out. His mind kept going back to Toothless, seeing the dragon so close, and wanting to do it again. He grinned now that there was nobody to wonder why he looked so goofy as he closed his eyes picturing everything again.

At some point he managed to drift off to sleep. Which was surprising considering that shocks seemed to have been forgotten in the construction of the bus. He found himself above the clouds again, then diving towards a blue ocean beneath. His face hurt from smiling so wide. Looking around he saw black wings beating on either side of him and a black head in front. Part of him was puzzled though. He knew, in the way that dreams made "sense" that he was on Toothless. But Toothless couldn't fly. He knew that as well. Maybe the fact that he had actually seen the dragon in person made him less likely to fall into the complete joy he'd generally felt, dreams could never equal reality after all, but made him more aware of what was around him. He looked behind himself and saw something odd. The missing fin was back, sort of. It was a bright red. Now that that had penetrated, he began to notice the harness, really looking at it for once, seeing how his body was shifting to move gears (gears?) and moving to control (control? what?) the fin. He was starting to lean over the dragon's shoulder to get a closer look, when he woke up. He had actually leaned forward in his sleep and fell off the seat when the bus took a corner.

An older woman smiled sympathetically as he brushed himself off, flushing in embarrassment. He smiled back weakly, his mind spinning. He could almost remember everything he'd seen in his dream. Knowing how quickly his dreams sometimes faded he reached for his bag and grabbed the notebook. He began to write _everything_ down. Every bit he could remember, little sketches of the harness, theories on what he'd seen of the control mechanism. Guesses on how the fin had been constructed. He didn't even notice people getting off to see Beneficence's garden, he was too busy pummeling his head for every detail. He finally stopped being lost in his own head as people began filing back on the bus. He smiled at several people, nodding vaguely as they talked about the dragon they'd seen, how close it was and so forth. He looked at his notebook, staring at what he'd written.

It was kind of creepy and bizarre. It was like he'd known every inch of the designs, even the bits he hadn't been able to write articulately about. He stared at the scribbled drawings, detailing complexities he'd never had any idea of. He ran his fingers over one drawing showing a pedal/stirrup, baffled at the feeling of recognition. It kind of scared him.

Then another part of him spoke up. The part that longed for the skies and always had. The part that lived, truly lived during his dreams. The part of himself that he considered the crazy part, the part that had told him to go into the woods to try and find a dragon wanted this. That part looked at the drawings, the notes and scribbles, and saw hope.

He grinned, now to try and figure out how the hell to make it.

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A/N: Sorry it took so long. I need the movie to come out. Whenever I needed inspiration I would go and watch the movie again in the theater when I was writing Downed Dragon (Don't ask how many times). I'm working on writing the next chapter, but I'm not sure when it will be posted. I'm not leaving this story, it's just taking a bit longer.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. I have the movie though!

Beta'd by Fjord_Mustang

* * *

The first problem of course was materials. Metal would be best, he was certain of that. Unfortunately the middle of the woods wasn't the best place to find a bunch of metal nobody was using, not to mention being probably outside his experience level and ability. He frowned, looking over the sketches of the fin. Metal would be best, yeah, but if he could make it from something else… Really all he needed to do was to prove it was possible… If his construction worked for even one flight, then maybe, maybe people might see that it could be done. Metal would last the longest, be the most sturdy, but wishing for the ability to make something like this from scratch out of the materials he was picturing, he snorted to himself. Why not simply wish for it to be carefully machined in a specialty shop out of fiberglass and titanium composite while he was at it? If wishes were fishes, we'd walk on the sea as his grandmother said.

He turned his attention to the saddle next, frowning in concentration. It actually reminded him of some of the pictures he'd seen in the horseback riding brochures his Mom had. Not a big clunky saddle like you always saw in the old Western movies, this was barely more than a pad. Way less wind resistance, and probably a lot lighter. He leaned back in his seat as the bus rattled its way back to camp, rubbing his pen against his mouth, tapping occasionally. How hard was it to make a saddle, or conversely, how much did they cost?

Then there was the whole mechanism between the two. It seemed, more or less, like a pulley system. Move this therefore this moves therefore ropes get adjusted to the fin controlling how far it opened or shut. He toyed with the idea of having it modernized, cable wires like on a bike's brake system, small movements to control things, but he knew that just following what he had here on the pages of his journal would be pushing his skills, let alone modifying it. And he was far more likely to be able to find rope than anything else.

He got off the bus, still pouring over the scribbles, not really paying attention to where he was going. He still wasn't paying much attention other than avoiding running into anything until he heard "Hey!"

His head popped up, confused at the shout. He looked around and realized he'd wandered into the maintenance area behind the ranger station. There were several vehicles, mostly rather battered, sad looking jeeps and various tools leaning against the walls of several sheds within the fenced area. He hadn't even noticed entering the gate to the area. He had a hand on the doorknob in front of him, apparently mistaking it for an entrance to the station itself. Looking up he saw a large barn-like building.

"What do you think you're doing?" An older woman in a park service uniform was walking over to where he stood.

"Oh! Sorry, sorry ma'am." Mike said, removing his hand. "I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going. Just operating on autopilot." He added, smiling at her sheepishly.

The stern look on the woman's face faded a bit. "Just as well I caught you. That's just a bunch of storage. Nothing interesting in there but tetanus." She matter-of-factly shooed him out the gate.

"Why would you have," he looked over his shoulder to take in the size of the building, "such a big building for storage?"

She smiled, he caught sight of her name tag which said "Grace", and replied, "It's mostly junk. Stuff that's too broke to work, but not too broken to use for parts. Probably should sort through it someday and have a junkman haul a load of it off." Grace shook her head. "I swear I spend more time chasing the guys that work here out of there than I do my own job." She pulled shut the gate, which was a simple chain link fence with green plastic woven through to block people from seeing in. There wasn't any lock on it that Mike could see, just a latch. It seemed to mostly count on the "Authorized Personnel Only" sign to discourage anybody.

"Why would you keep stuff for parts?" Mike asked, confused. "Isn't this a National park, don't you get money to operate?" He followed the woman back to the actual entrance to the station.

She grimaced and made a rude noise. "Parks and Recreation is always the first to get cut from the budget and the last added back in. And even when the politicians do allocate money, it's usually a way to get funds to various cronies. It the parks see one dollar out of a thousand earmarked for us we're surprised. So we stock up when we have money, to be able to wait out the lean time." She smiled at him. "So as you can see, the fees families like yours pay to stay here really helps keep this park running."

Mike nodded happily as Grace waved at him and walked off. He walked in the opposite direction and glanced back to make sure she saw him walking away. He made a quick stop at his cabin to drop off his bag and check and see if his parents were back. Seeing that they weren't he went back out. Mike went back to the fenced area, keeping enough distance that he didn't think anybody would notice he was watching, but close enough he could see if anybody went in or out.

It took a while, as people were coming and going at all times, but he was pretty sure that everybody had left. It would be bad to be caught sneaking in. At best they'd probably keep him somewhere until his parents got back and then they'd keep a closer eye on him for the rest of vacation and he'd never get to sneak away to see Toothless again. At worst, the police could be called, his mother would have hysterics, Ashley would kill him for ruining the vacation, and he'd still never get to see Toothless again. Going close to the fence he walked by as though he was simply going past before veering over to the gate. It was a simple lift latch, like on any backyard fence, and he lifted it quickly, pulling the gate just open enough he could squeeze through and shut it again quickly. He waited, listening to see if anybody saw him and was coming to yell at him. …Nothing.

Moving away from the gate he looked quickly around the service area. There were several sheds with riding mowers and other gardening things around, or another that had tables and folding chairs stacked within it.

The building with the junk in it actually had two doors in it. One normal sized door, another to the side that was a garage type door. It wasn't actually a barn as he'd first thought. It was one of the buildings that had been popular in the fifties, and on military bases for quick storage. Quonset huts? He was pretty sure that was what they were called. A long half circle tube with flat ends. He turned the handle on the smaller door and went in.

It fortunately wasn't completely dark inside. There were windows set at either end that let light in, but with the sheer piles of _stuff _everywhere, almost everything was covered in shadows. It looked like some of the stacks were leaning against each other. There was one pile of dented and broken folding chairs that looked like it would all come tumbling down if Mike breathed on it. Right on the other side of the garage door was the remains of a jeep. It was on blocks. The right side front door was gone as was the windshield. The scattering of nuts and bolts showed that several things from under the hood had been removed. Obviously it was one of the junked items they were slowly scavenging for parts.

Mike carefully walked down the "aisles", glad he was skinny. Tetanus jungle came to mind as he looked around. Firetrap also applied. He could easily see that everybody who entered the building probably would say "Y'know we really need to straighten this place up some time." And then there was never enough time to even be worth making a dent in the chaos. Mike realized that if there was an avalanche of junk it would really need cadaver dogs to find his body buried beneath all of it.

Some of the junk made sense. The twenty or so weed whackers in various stages of disrepair for example. Others there had no good reason for existing. Maybe they had a fundraiser, or planned one with donation at one point? That was the only reason he could come up with for the framed moth-eaten velvet picture of a kitten. Mike was sure it was meant to be cute, but either the artist's lack of ability or the fact that it had been left to rot in this barn of a building made the kitten look like it was suffering from rabies. Or why the box of mismatched chipped dishware? The stack of green painted sawhorses/barricades made sense, or the broken pair of garden shears (and how did one handle get bent so far out of whack?), but the box of records didn't. Old displays from the ranger station were scattered around, some leaning against walls, others against piles. Mike assumed the grouping of taxidermied animals with creepy glass eyes that were piled on top of a giant spool generally used for wire went with one of the displays. Somebody had moved several so they were positioned in slightly obscene ways. He assumed that was from one of the guys Grace mentioned chasing out of here.

He began to feel discouraged. This really was just junk. Lots of it. He poked through some stuff leaning against a wall and felt a bit more hopeful when he ran across some stakes. Some bamboo ones were mixed in with other plain cheap wood ones. After checking them he found they looked good, no splits or other damage. He could picture them being used for the spines of the fin. He knew bamboo was strong and flexible, it should work well, if not look that great. No they weren't fireproof, but as he tried to keep in mind, he just needed something that would work for a while, not forever. He began to separate several from the pile without having the whole bunch start to slide down and clatter to the ground.

He'd just finished that and was trying to figure out where to put them, and more importantly how to get them out of here unnoticed, when he turned around and saw it. It being a saddle tossed in a corner. Leaning the stakes he'd pulled out back against the wall he went over. Running his hands over the leather. It was in pretty bad shape, dry and cracked, it felt awful. One strap was half missing, he couldn't tell if it was torn or cut, and he was rather worried about what the stains on the other were. But it was a mostly whole saddle, effectively for free. Given that it was just thrown on the floor it was doubtful that anybody would miss it. It was even a simple one, more of a flat pad than anything. It was perfect.

And like with the stakes getting away with it was another story. He picked up the saddle, it was big enough to be difficult to juggle, but not impossible. This would be very hard to explain if he was caught with it. While he didn't think that anybody would really care that he was taking a battered, broken saddle, it would show that he'd snuck into this building. While he'd been losing hope, this find made him think there might be more to find in the mysterious piles of stuff in here. He didn't want the park service people deciding they needed to put locks on the door, or the fence. After all he'd only seached through maybe a quarter of it, who knew what else was here? He made it over to the door, juggling the saddle without smacking into anything and causing a cascade. He carefully cracked the door open and looked around. There wasn't anyone in the service area yet. He shifted the saddle in his arms again, it was impossible to carry neatly. The stiff, dry conditions of the straps meant they stuck out awkwardly in different directions, flopping around when he moved. Creeping over to the fence he picked at the plastic strips woven in it to try and see if anybody was near. A man and woman walked by, but neither was dressed in any of the park service uniforms he'd seen so far, and given their conversation he could tell they were just tourists. Once they were out of sight he slipped out of the gate, heading away from the populated areas with his prize. He circled around to his family's cabin, happy to see they weren't back yet.

He knew he couldn't leave it at the cabin, there just wasn't room to hide it anywhere. Looking at it in good light made it look even more pathetic. The whole surface was cracked and dry, the straps, or what remained of them, were more or less frozen in position. Every bit of metal was rusted or dull. Mike chewed on his lips wondering if it was even worth it to try and fix it.

First though he needed to find someplace to hide it. The cabin was empty of any nice secluded closets, attics, or convenient crawl spaces. A quick look at the clock told him he needed to get his rear in gear. Thinking quickly he decided that the woods were the only place he might be able to hide the thing. Shortly thereafter he found the emergency rain ponchos his mother tucked into at least one suitcase no matter where they went. He was certain that if they went to Death Valley in August she'd still tuck them away somewhere. She claimed that having them prevented them from getting rained on. While as damaged as the saddle was it was hard to imagine it getting any worse, he still wrapped it carefully in the dark green plastic of either his dad's or his brother's poncho. He then tucked it under his arm and headed towards the woods.

It was even more nerve wracking in the daylight. He was sure _somebody_ would notice him, a kid, heading off into the trees and yell at him. This time he kept a better watch of where he was going, both so he could find the saddle again wherever he placed it, and so he could find his way back out. He actually came across a point where some rocks poked out of the earth, surrounded by the rest of the forest. There was even a spot among them where he could wedge the saddle that seemed fairly dry. He looked back the way he had come, he could still see the campsite, but it was far enough that nobody would likely notice the bit of dark green plastic wedged among the rocks. Also most people weren't exactly thrilled about going wandering in these woods. There actually were hiking paths, but those were mostly used by scientists trying to get to remote areas to study dragon behavior, not tourists. They were also labeled "Use at your own risk", which given the inhabitants of the park was no laughing matter.

Mike looked around after he finished hiding the saddle to see if Toothless was anywhere around. He didn't see the dragon, though. He wasn't exactly surprised, he was closer than the dragon had approached the campsite when leading him back. He still wasn't sure if not seeing Toothless meant the dragon wasn't near, or if he simply wasn't observant enough.

He returned quickly to the campsite. As he wandered about the building he began to think about the saddle. He'd need to repair it somehow. It was in pretty bad shape. Mike decided to go to the station again. Walking in he headed to the racks of glossy brochures that were along one wall. They were split up into types, some advertising other campgrounds, cabins, or RV parks in the surrounding areas; a lot advertising various activities around the park, everything from skiing to canoeing. Then there was the section on shopping. There were advertisements for everything. Antique malls, outlet malls, boutique shops, farm equipment, pretty much every store, shop, or home that sold tsotchkes within 60 miles of the park. There were several places advertising saddles and tack, but he didn't know if they made the stuff or just sold it, or if they knew how to fix it. Plus, most of them had the creative scale maps that made it seem as though they were right next to the park, even if it was a half hour drive away.

Looking through the pamphlets Mike felt his hopes shrinking. He poked and prodded through them until he found a fairly simple one, two-sided, that advertised Mitchell Family Tannery- Quality Leather Goods for 90 years. Reading it quickly he saw they sold new and used harness, tack, and specialty items. Repair was listed as well. He flipped it over and stared. Somebody up there loved him. The map showed it just outside the eastern border of the park. Yeah, probably too far to walk, but… Maybe he could get Toothless to carry him. Not while using the saddle obviously, there wouldn't be anything left of it he figured if he tried to put it on the dragon in the condition it was in. And it wasn't like he could simply ask his parents to take him and the saddle there.

That decided he checked his watch, his family should be getting back anytime now. Mike wandered through the exhibits again, before seeing that there was a ranger sitting at a table with several children standing in front of it, listening to what he was saying. Mike drifted over and saw that on the table were several things, pieces of pelts from foxes, bear and raccoon as well as claws from several creatures, skulls, and what looked like eggshell and shed skin.

"Now this," the man held up one shell fragment, "is a partial shell from a hawk's nest. And this," he held up another piece, "is one from a Terrifying Nighmare's nest. Notice how thick the dragon's is compared to the hawk's. Also notice how much flatter it seems, that's due to the larger size of one over the other."

The kids ooh'd and ah'd. One wanted to know how close the man had been to either species.

"Well, I help out with a rehabilitation group, so I come into contact with hawks, eagles, owls and falcons fairly regularly. I'm not one of the specialists who deal with the dragons. Or at least as much dealing as can be done with them, it's mostly just knowing their habits enough to be able to come within view of them. The birds on the other hand, I work with exercising them, cleaning their mews, all of the various minutia that is involved. Despite what you may have seen in the Harry Potter movies and books, caring for a raptor is not easy."

Mike managed to get close enough to see the table clearly and touch the shed scales. Not every dragon shed their skin like a lizard or snake, but some did. Others only lost a scale if it became damaged in some way. The feel of the dry, fragile scales under his fingers was like a dead echo of the feeling of warm, smooth, strong scales he had touched. He pulled his hand away, wiping it on his pants.

"Enjoying your stay?" The man asked Mike as the younger kids wandered off. Mike looked up from studying the piece of dragon shell, startled. He glanced at the man's name tag, Grant was what his name was.

Mike smiled. "I'm enjoying it. I love dragons, want to study them someday. My sister's not happy, but then I don't know if anything would make her happy."

He spent a bit chatting before heading back out. His parents were just opening the door to the cabin. He smiled at them, chattering away about his day, with selective editing, until both of his parent's eyes began to glaze and he knew that they'd begun to tune him out. That meant it was safe to be quiet and not find himself interrogated.

The next morning Mike didn't try to get up especially early, planning on sneaking off later. When his Mom brought up the place they'd decided to go to yesterday, a zip line and rock climbing place, Mike managed to avoid going again. Both Ashley and Drew rolled their eyes, both seeming to want to smack him.

"Mikey, the zip line place says it's almost like sailing on a dragon through the trees." His Mom coaxed.

"Nah, I'm really learning a lot." He replied, smiling at her concerned face. "I'm thinking about seeing what kind of volunteer programs they have for when I'm in college."

She smiled and ruffled his hair. "Let's worry about high school first, 'kay?" She shook her head and sighed. "I wished you weren't quite so enthusiastic about the dragons, but if you're learning something."

"Oh, I'm learning lots!" Mike responded, wide-eyed.

His dad shook his head, muttering about how when he was a kid his dragon phase was only a few weeks, same as Drew's. Why his youngest had to find a bunch of scaly bloodthirsty creatures so fascinating he'd never understand.

This time, certain that he'd be fine, his parents didn't hang around to make sure he got on the bus. They walked him over, his mother kissed him on the head and told him to be good, which caused Ashley to snicker as he rubbed at his forehead. Then they headed off, Ashley looking back and waving while mouthing "loser" at him.

As soon as he saw the car drive away he left the waiting area. He quickly moved towards where he'd left the saddle, keeping an eye out as there were a lot of people out and about now. It took a bit longer to get to it this time, having to wait until nobody was watching. Once he picked it up, he moved quickly to get deeper in the woods before anybody saw him.

He was hoping the dragon would be willing to come to him again, even if he didn't have fish with him. As soon as he thought he was far enough away he began to look around, still juggling the awkward saddle. He sighed as nothing moved in the trees that he could see. He knew he'd felt a connection, but… Maybe he was only interested in him because of the food-

A snort came from behind him and he yelped, spinning around to see a rather smug looking Night Fury standing behind him. He scowled at the dragon.

"Do you like seeing me screech like a girl" He demanded as the dragon purred and came closer. The Night Fury poked the bundle of saddle with his nose, sniffing it curiously. Pacing easily around the boy he then leaned in again and poked the saddle with his nose, making one of those complicated sounds of his, before sniffing deeply. Then sneezing.

Mike rolled his eyes and unwrapped the package for the dragon's inspection. He laid the battered saddle on top of the poncho and stood back.

"So, what do you think?" He asked.

It was kind of funny seeing the dragon circle the worn piece of leather, nosing parts of it gently, walking in an odd way arching his back as he moved, before turning and giving him the most penetrating, questioning stare he'd ever received from anything, human or animal.

It shook him slightly. That was not a look like you'd get from a dog or cat. That was an interrogative look. It demanded answers. "It's, um, it's a saddle. I've had these, um, dreams. And, well," he flushed at how bad he was stammering, but it felt like he was under a microscope the way the dragon was looking at him, "I think I've seen you fly. I mean it feels like that, in my dreams. After you lost your fin. Or something, it felt real anyway. And I want to see you fly again, um… Not that I'm sure I can do it, y'know, but I'll try. Assuming you can understand me, I'm giving a promise."

He picked up the saddle, re-wrapping it. He noticed that Toothless had drawn slightly away. If he could describe the dragon's expression now, it would be contemplative. Which was crazy. Everybody knew dragons were simply wild animals. Dumb beasts according to the researchers, acting under their instincts. Of course everybody also knew that Night Furies were completely reclusive and any dragon would kill a human that wasn't careful for fun, not to mention "Loki" was one of the most dangerous dragons in the park. So… Forget what "everybody" knows and start from scratch.

While he had considered asking Toothless to carry him to the store, just getting on some one seemed rude in some way. He couldn't really make sense of it in his own mind, after all he'd sort of "broken bread" with the dragon, in an absolutely nauseating way, and had even napped against him, but using him as just a beast of burden didn't feel right. Helping him get in the air, yes, using him like a horse, no. Mike eyed the dragon cautiously now. "So, there's this place east of the park where I think I can fix this, so I'm going to head there. It's called Mitchell's Family Tannery, they do repairs and stuff."

No sign of recognition, the dragon's eyes didn't even twitch in the direction he'd indicated. Mike sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Get a weird look from a dragon and next he thinks it's smart. Well, he _knows_ the dragon is smart, he wouldn't have frustrated so many trackers otherwise, but he wasn't intelligent. Maybe.

Mike hefted the saddle and set off in the direction of the sun since it was still low enough to indicate east. Toothless got up and padded along next to him, cocking his head occasionally. Finally the dragon apparently got tired of how slow Mike was going and butted him from the side with his head.

"Whoa! What?" Mike cried, as he stumbled, the terrain they'd been walking on, while not a cliff side, was a pretty steep hill. He staggered, managing not to fall and glared at the dragon. Toothless stood there, one front leg cocked, like he was expecting Mike to climb on. It was surreal. Why would a wild creature take a position to make it easier for him to climb on? How would he know?

Mike carefully juggled the saddle as he put his left foot gingerly on Toothless' cocked left forearm. When the dragon didn't shake him off or growl, he put his weight on it and swung up and got his leg across the wide neck. It was a surprisingly comfortable spot, wide but not so much it felt like he was trying to do the splits. Then Toothless moved.

Mike had pictured something like his dreams, graceful movements, easily staying on. This, not so much. It was terrifying. Mike hunched over the bundle of the saddle, arms spread with his fingers splayed trying to hang on. His legs were clenched tightly, he'd slid back a bit so now each knee was hooked under a wing, which meant he'd moved back far enough that it was horribly uncomfortable. But comfort came second to safety, and there was nothing on this green earth that was going to make him loosen any form of grip he'd managed. Each bound and leap the Night Fury made left him certain that he was going to slide of and die. Every so often the dragon would halt for a moment, a space of time in which Mike would try to get a better grip, sniffing the air before bounding off again.

This was not in any way like his dreams. Those were smooth, easy and enjoyable. This was hard, the smooth scales left nothing to cling to, he'd considered the ridges ringing the dragon's face as a grip before remembering how sensitive they'd been when he'd petted Toothless yesterday. While he was focused on not falling to his death, his subconscious piped up and translated this nightmare of a ride to one several hundred feet in the air. If not higher. Mike began making plans, a safety harness for him. Ropes, chains, possibly a bucket full of krazy glue – anything to keep him _on_ the saddle.

Suddenly he felt the dragon's muscles bunch underneath him, even more than when Toothless decided to leap off a small cliff (it was only about ten feet high) and glide with Mike keeping his eyes shut trying not to whimper. This time the Night Fury suddenly launched himself upwards, a powerful beat of his wings giving him more lift before thudding back to the ground, bounding a bit to deal with the extra force before stopping.

Mike managed to loosen his grip, which was more approaching an attempt to fuse with the dragon than an attempt to hold on, and dropped the saddle before hitting the ground himself. Extreme self-control was needed to avoid kissing it. He slowly got to his feet, swaying slightly. Toothless came up behind him. Despite the sheer terror of the ride it was a comfort to have the dragon beside him.

Mike stared ahead blankly. Just through the trees he could see a building. There looked to be a gravel parking lot next to it and what looked like a sign that what he could see said "Mitchell's Fami…" He immediately turned and looked straight at the dragon who was looking especially innocent. And what could _he_ do about it? Demand to the dragon "I know you're intelligent, fess up!" Yeah, that wouldn't look strange at all.

Mike sighed and reached out and scratched Toothless beneath his chin. All questions of possible intelligence fled at the sight of a happy, purring puddle of dragon. He snickered and gave a light pat before retrieving the saddle. He began walking towards the shop before stopping. What would happen if anybody saw Toothless? But when he turned around the dragon was already gone. Silently. Mike had to shake his head, no wonder he drove the trackers so insane.

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A/N: I am so sorry on the time between the last chapter and this one. I kept getting bogged down in it horribly. And every time I got bogged down my muse would die for anywhere from a few days to a week. So, yeah. Anyways to get around my mind's stubborn refusal to write this chapter, I skipped ahead and began to work on the next chapter, or what is now two chapters ahead. So since I'm typing up the next chapter now, and already have the first draft of the next, it shouldn't be such a long wait between the next chapteres.


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. Dang it.

Beta'd by FjordMustang. Thank you for your patience and suggestions.

Mike walked around to the entrance of the building. He walked up the two steps and pushed the door open, hearing a small bell jingle as he did so. A tall man walked out from another door, apparently going to a workshop. The whole of the store was full of saddles, harnesses, and other supplies. One wall had other leather made things, from purses to belts. The strong smell of leather permeated everything. The man was tall and sturdy looking. Salt and pepper hair was long enough to pull back framed a lined face. Tan from being out in the sun a lot. The man looked Mike up and down, frowning at him.

"Um… I kind of, ah, inherited this saddle. And well, I wanted to see if it was possible to fix it." Mike began hesitantly. The man was rather stern looking, like a teacher who knows you're in the wrong and is just waiting for you to confirm it. Mike carefully put the bundle on the counter and unwrapped it.

The sight of the saddle was even more pathetic here, surrounded by the obviously well made, well cared for pieces in the room. The cracked surface was awful looking and just sad. It was obviously missing its stirrups, and was probably extremely plain even new. Just a basic form of a saddle, no frills. The man looked down at the saddle and frowned even more. He picked it up, turning it and inspecting it.

"Why would'ya bother? This thing's definitely seen better days. Possibly better years. The labor costs alone to get it into condition where I could work with it would practically be the cost of a new one, definitely the cost of a decent used one." The man's voice was a surprisingly even tenor, as tall and imposing as the man was he looked like he should have a deep resonating voice.

"Ah, actually I'd like to do the labor my self." Mike started.

"Then why'd you bring it here?" The man asked, his focus back on Mike again.

"Well…" Mike began to think quickly. "This used to be my grandfather's. I've been begging my parents to get me a horse, but they told me I had to get this into working order to show that I'm up to the responsibility of having one. But I don't know anything about working leather. I can pay for the materials, really!" He turned his puppy eyes on the man. Granted if the prices went too high, he'd be out of every cent he'd saved up and brought with him. He'd managed to save up a little over two hundred dollars and now was kicking himself for spending a bit on the book.

The man frowned and looked at the saddle again. He looked up to the ceiling and sighed before turning away. He walked back to the door he'd entered by. Mike sighed and began trying to think of where else was fairly close that he could try and get this fixed.

"Well, are you comin' or not?"

Mike looked up and smiled brightly at the man who was keeping the door open. Yes this was rather strange, trusting a strange man, but the man was actually trusting him too. And he had a feeling that if he screamed that Toothless wasn't too far away to cause holy hell very quickly if necessary.

As the door swung shut the man nodded towards a table. "Set it down over there, see that can marked saddle soap? Grab it and some cloths from that pile over next to it. You need to wet one of the rags and get a bit of the soap on it, then start rubbing it into the leather. We'll need to see if you can even get the leather soft enough to work before we worry about repair. I'll charge you for the leather you'll need, otherwise you'll help me keep this place clean, do some sweeping and so forth to pay for the instruction, deal? M'name is Dan, yours?"

"Mike. Thanks so much sir, it sounds very fair." Mike quickly set to work. And it was work. Working the soap into the hard leather. It didn't smell bad, just kind of strong, and he took a seat on a stool he hooked with an ankle and pulled towards him. Dan went back to working on a fancy saddle that was on a rack to hold it. He was apparently putting the final details and decorative tooling. It was a gorgeous piece. Obviously the man wasn't a big talker. Mike began to daydream, picturing that saddle Dan was working on was his instead of this battered thing. Only it was dyed black instead of a light brown. And had dragons tooled into it. And he was dressed in black too on Toothless as they soared around, practically invisible in the dark. They were like ninjas-

"So what kind of horse do y'want?"

The sudden question jarred Mike from his daydream. "Huh, what?"

"The horse you've got your eyes on, what kind is it? You want to be certain the saddle will fit."

Mike blinked. "Um… A black one?"

"Hmm." That seemed to be all Dan had to say on the subject.

Mike went back to work. The cut strap was already starting to have more flexibility. He kept adding more soap, pushing at the hard stuff from the tin to rub it on the rag before working it in.

"And where are your parents?"

Mike jumped again. Geeze, Dan liked springing questions on a person. "They dropped me off, you didn't hear them?"

"Nope. Strange that they didn't wait around. Or even meet me before leaving you here."

Mike shrugged, going for casual. "There was a shop they wanted to check out down the road. I have a cell phone." He lied. "Heard about how this place does repairs as well as new stuff so I figured this was the best place to ask about how to do this."

"Huh."

Mike was starting to feel frazzled. His story was pretty thin. Practically transparent. Maybe he should've just bought some stuff and muddled through on his own. Dan kept giving him narrow looks and eyeing his work on the saddle. When Dan got up and came over he was sure the man was going to demand some answers.

"Not bad for a start." And that was all he said. "Looks like you'll have to take out some seams to replace that strap though. What happened to it?"

"Uh, don't really know." Mike managed. "My parents just dug it out and gave me it. Is that difficult?"

"Time consuming, more than anything. Generally don't see anybody bothering with something that's this bad off unless it's an antique. And this style, I'd say it's a Icelandic style saddle." There was a pause. "Funny your granddad would have one, they've just started to get popular recently in this country."

Mike kept his head down, focusing on what he was doing to refresh the leather. He found himself chewing on his lower lip, wondering if he was going to get kicked out. Dan stood there for a moment longer before sighing and going back to his own work. He must've finished the tooling he'd been working on as he went over to another partially finished saddle and began to work on it.

"So…" Mike tried for some small talk. "I saw that the sign and flyers said Mitchell Family, anybody else that helps you?"

Dan looked at him from what he was doing. "Actually we started in Texas. We've got three or four shops in various states. I came up here one year when I was young and fell in love with the scenery. Opened this outpost and been working it ever since." He smiled suddenly, making him seem much younger. "The main shop in Texas has the actual tannery. As much as I love working with the leather, I can't say I miss having to make it. Th' most gawdawful smell known to man. Leave that for my nieces and nephews. They send up leather for me to work for the saddles and some of the other items I don't specialize in, and I send back some of the saddles I don't sell for them to do so. One of my sister-in-laws does most of the purse designs."

"It seems kind of odd to have your store right next to the dragon preserve. Um. I mean aren't most of the people who ride a bit far away, since there aren't any riding paths nearby?" Mike asked, it was convenient to him at least, but really out of the way for anybody else.

"Cause it was dirt cheap." Dan replied, smiling a little. "My family wasn't sure there was enough of a market to open a store up here, so I had to find a spot that was cheaper'n hell to get the go-ahead. This plot had been owned by some family since before the park was planed, soon as it was declared, they couldn't give it away for love or money. Nobody with any sense wanted to be right next to the dragons."

"Um…" Mike wasn't sure exactly how to respond to that.

Dan turned to him and gave a crooked grin. "Not sure if you should take that as a comment on me, huh? They really don't seem to be bad neighbors, so long as you don't have livestock, or go poking around in their territory. And seeing them in the sky, well… Who doesn't at some point want to see that? 'Bout the only problem I've had is the little ones getting into the trash. And the only reason they're more annoying than the coyotes, or bears, is their habit of melting any plastic trashcans they decide they want to get inside of."

"Anyway, the land was cheap and after a while, word of the quality got out. Most of my sales are either special orders or pre-made stuff, and since I don't mind going to a stable to get measurements, I have a lot word of mouth business."

* * *

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Toothless paced uneasily. Having the human away, around other humans he didn't know was unsettling. Even if he wasn't sure what the human was planning. He'd understood a few words, "flying" had jumped out at him in the babble. "Dreams", weren't those the visions while asleep? Granted when Hiccup had decided to help the first thing he'd brought was a fin, not a saddle. And a far better made one too, this one smelled of old and dust and looked awful. He was wary that the boy just wanted to put it on him.

And then the boy just started to walk off. Didn't try and force him or anything. It was very strange, and tiresome. Humans took forever to get anywhere. He'd forgotten how slow it was to go at their pace. Fortunately it only took a couple of tries to pantomime that he was willing to allow the boy on his back. Something he'd always sworn he'd never allow to any other. Not that the boy seemed to notice his magnanimous gesture. And he felt like a sack of wheat on his back, horribly off balance and barely even trying to correct. It threw off his stride, instead of being able to simply move as he willed he had to keep compensating as the boy slipped and slid, making his movements far jerkier than his usual graceful leaps. He shuddered to think about another try at them moving together.

It hadn't been hard to figure out where the boy wanted to go. As awful smelling as the lump of a saddle was he hoped the human wanted to replace it entirely. There was a place along one side of the boundary for the park where he had caught a whiff of a scent of good leather. He mostly remembered it because it had reminded him so strongly of those long-lost times when Hiccup had turned his hands from metal crafting to leather to make some slight modification, usually for Toothless' own comfort. It was also, more or less in the direction the human had been trudging. Other than having to pause occasionally to catch the scent, he hadn't had too much trouble tracking it down. And the stupefied look on the boy's face had been worth it. Obviously the boy hadn't expected him to figure this out. He'd felt smug at the thought of proving he could reason out things, not that he'd shown any humans that since he'd come to this land. Not that he should've probably shown this one…

And yet… And yet… He needed to stay nearby. Part of him was almost resentful at

the feeling of calmness and peace he felt, even feeling the boy almost slip off his shoulder for the fifth time in three bounds. Having the human away, around someone neither of them knew, was almost driving him to distraction. He paced, back away from the building under the screen of trees, as he watched. His hearing had only brought quiet human noises, nothing to be worried about.

He would wait, and watch.

And hope.

* * *

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Mike managed a few more questions and carefully answered a few of Dan's and the man seemed to relax a bit. It wasn't until he had both straps smooth and flexible again that Mike realized that over two hours had passed. Crap, he couldn't spend all day here! He needed to look for more things to make the fin, not to mention the whole mechanism. And just spend time with Toothless, he hadn't had nearly enough time around the dragon, what with having to fend his family's suspicion off. Which was a really bad way of looking at it, but there it was.

"Um…" He still wasn't sure about Dan, and he didn't want to disturb the comfortable feeling that was going on. Dan looked up from where he was cutting a panel for whatever he was working on, Mike had lost track, "My parents will be picking me up kind of soon… I'd like to come back tomorrow, and the next, until this is finished."

"And you want to know where to put it until then."

"Ah, yeah. I mean if it's too much trouble I can take it with me…" Mike stuttered.

"Nah, we can keep it in the stock room, I have an extra stand for it we can throw it on. Slather some neatsfoot oil on the saddle, we'll see if it soaks in and helps a bit. Maybe you won't have to put so much arm strength into it tomorrow." Dan said, waving off Mike's offer. Which was a relief. He thought he could stay on Toothless a bit better without having to hold on to the bulky thing.

He hauled it over, got it set up and put away the rags he'd used where Dan had indicated before giving a wave and darting out the door. "See ya!"

He quickly moved from the door, circling around to disappear into the woods before Dan could get to the doorway. He hoped that his quick disappearance wouldn't ring too many bells in the man's head, but it couldn't be helped. Mike barely had time to look around before he felt warm breath across his neck. Spinning around he grinned and reached out and scratched Toothless who was hovering behind him on the chin. It was funny to watch how the dragon's eyes became somewhat glazed at he rubbed harder.

"Miss me?" He asked, still feeling the joy and awe at having such a creature near himself. The dragon pulled away from his hands, shaking himself and snorting, causing Mike to laugh.

The trip back wasn't quite such a nightmare. He squeezed his eyes shut when the dragon took gliding leaps from small (relatively speaking) cliff-sides, but not having to hold onto the saddle let him loop his arms more around the dragon's neck. It still wasn't a great grip, and he was still vowing to find something that would keep him connected to the dragon in the air when they arrived back near the campground.

Quickly. Post haste. Like as soon as he could get his muscles to unfreeze from the death-grip he'd managed.

Having Toothless seem to side-step out from under him so he fell in a pile of somewhat musty leaves was annoying, though not nearly as much as seeing the upside down face of the dragon looking down at him, and he could swear the beast was laughing at him.

He finally got up, dusted himself off and made promises to the dragon that he would be back the very next day before running off to see if his parents were back.

* * *

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Mike found his days falling into a rather hectic and nerve-wracking pattern. He would wake up, beg off whatever his Mom had planned (which kept getting harder as her face fell further at his refusal each day), either sneak into the storage shed or if there were too many people around head straight out to see Toothless. He would spend some time around the dragon before they headed out to the shop. Mike kept a careful watch on the time, leaving on some days to have time to look through the storage afterwards. He began to plan out how to take various items from the building. First he would find something that he could see might fit in someway into the plans in his head, he would then take that and place it closer to the door, and then take whatever he'd found the day before and placed there back out.

He actually managed to find the perfect harness for himself. When wandering through the stacks of stuff he found a large trash bin full of them. Well full of harnesses that were used for wall climbing. He recognized them from when they went to a center that had climbing-wall for Drew's birthday last year. It was so very bizarre to find such a thing piled in there, until he realized that most of what was being used to pile junk on nearby were pieces of an apparently pillar-type climbing-wall. And going by the deep gouges and scorch marks on the one that appeared to be the top, one of the dragons had decided it was their territory. Which would've killed any interest humans had in using it. Unlucky for the park, as solid as it looked it had been built to last and must've cost a lot, but incredibly lucky for him. There was even a plastic Tupperware type container half shoved underneath a nearby pile full of carabiner clips.

Slowly, but surely he began to assemble the bits together for the fin. At least the frame. He hadn't found any fabric that would work yet. He slipped tools out from the other sheds when they were open. Only things that had multiples, like hammers, screwdrivers, etc. At least they were simply thrown in a rolling tool chest in one of the sheds, not neatly labeled and kept in an orderly fashion like his Dad's. His Dad would've realized in about half a second that he'd borrowed one of his tools. Here if one was missing they'd probably just blame some other crew.

It was slow going, not just because he would get frustrated at his lack of skill and want to simply throw the whole thing off a cliff. He knew he was only here for two weeks. Two weeks was one heck of a deadline for a project like this. Half the time he felt like the secrets and the stress was going to kill him he needed to work _faster_ dang it, other times the fear of losing the connection he was slowly creating with the Night Fury when he had to leave made him want to slow down. Savor being near Toothless as much as possible. Sometimes the dragon seemed to know when the two feelings were pulling him apart and he would find himself unable to find any of the tools he needed to work. With an extremely innocent looking dragon nearby. Once the two of them had simply _been_, whether it involved roughhousing together, or simply leaning against each other looking at the sky, Mike would feel refreshed and ready to beat whatever part was giving him trouble into submission.

He learned a lot from Dan. The man was patient in showing him how to take the seams out to replace the straps, all of which were completely worthless, and use tools like a stitching awl to replace them. Dan seemed to keep quiet about whatever he though Mike was up to as long as Mike did the work. And Mike made sure to do a thorough sweeping when he first arrived, followed by a quick one after he put everything away before leaving. At least Dan hadn't complained. Learning how to measure and cut the thick leather, bevel the edges and making something out of the battered saddle was amazing. It now simply looked worn, rather than complete garbage. Old but still usable, which suited Mike fine, though learning how to do things right and watching Dan work on the beautiful special ordered saddles made him almost lust over the thought of having one specially made for Toothless. He had found himself doodling sketches of what he would have a tooling on his perfect idea of a saddle. Stylized images of a Night Fury dominated.

The day he finished the work on the saddle he was cleaning up when he heard an absolutely blistering amount of swearing come from the stock room of the shop. Dan was practically shouting into a phone when he peeked around the doorway, glad there weren't any customers in the shop.

"What the _hell_, Diane? This stuff is crap, complete crap… Don't give me that, no… No it's your husband who decides to ship shit up here. No, no… I have made it extremely clear exactly what it is that I need and use. … I am not here to have the crappy hides dumped on. … Well have the kids use it for little stuff. Wallets, hell bracelets. … Fine, I'll ship it back, see if I don't." Dan flipped the phone shut, muttering about how it was so much more satisfying to slam a phone down rather than simply close it.

"What's wrong?" Mike asked hesitantly.

"Hmm? Oh. Mike." Dan ran a hand through his hair looking embarrassed at being caught yelling. He then scowled again. "My worthless backstabbing brother-in-law thought he could pass off some crappy hides on me. Look at this useless piece of crap." Dan reached down and picked up a piece of leather. It was far thinner leather than the stuff Mike had seen in the shop, and didn't have a nice smooth surface either, it almost looked scarred. "What happened to the cow this came from? Did it get into a fight with razor wire and lose? This should've simply been made in to latigo lace at best, used for scraps at worst. Maybe sell it cheap to some weekend crafter." Dan looked pissed again. "And she thinks I won't send it back, well hell with that. I'll ship it back express air mail with postage due."

Mike stared at the hide. It was ugly, but the piece was fairly large. If he cut around the thinnest parts… He blinked seeing the perfect surface for the fin. It might work. Yes a lot of the leather was far too thin to work, he knew now from his lessons that it would stretch and possibly even tear making it useless of most projects. But the rest…

"Can I buy it?" He blurted out.

Dan blinked. "I know I've shown you enough that you should know this is pretty useless."

"Well, now that I'm done with the saddle, I thought I could use it to keep in practice with. Especially my stitches. If all I'm doing is trying to get a straight stitch it's not that bad."

Dan snorted. "No kidding. I'm still telling you that you are far off on the positioning of those straps. I can't believe how far off you got."

Mike managed a faint smile, looking embarrassed at the floor. The straps were fine where he'd put them. For going on a Night Fury. For a horse? Not so much.

"Fine, hell, take the whole pile. Free to a good home. I'll write it off and bill back home. That'll tick off that neurotic little accountant my sister married to no end." The man hefted the pile and handed it to Mike. "Take it. Have fun. Burn it for all I care." Dan looked at him seriously.

"Now I haven't asked many questions, but I have one question I need to ask before you disappear for the last time. I've seen how you look towards the park. Don't even shake your head in denial," The man stated and Mike instinctively started to deny. "I've seen it. I just want you to promise me one thing. I want you to promise me you aren't stupid enough to try and ride whatever horse you get into the park."

Mike blinked. That… Wasn't what he had been expecting. "I can promise you that, sir."

Dan looked at him narrowly. "I've seen a number of people get idiot-minded from being around the dragons. Maybe the old wives tale about them hypnotizing people with their eyes has some grain of truth to it. I don't know how many people I've heard of going up there riding some poor animal claiming they have some kind of 'connection' with the creatures, but the lucky ones are identified by the tack that's found lying around. At least their families get closure. Most simply disappear."

"I promise that I won't ride a horse, or any other domestic animal into the dragon preserve." Mike said solemnly. "That's never been my plan, ever." He wasn't sure how much of the sincerity got through, but some of the seriousness cleared from Dan's face.

"Good, see that you don't." Dan held out a hand as Mike juggled the leather he was still holding to take it. "You're a good worker. Keep up with it. Maybe when you're older you could see about coming back here. Maybe do an internship or something when you're in college."

"Thanks, Dan." Mike said, feeling happy with the praise. And happy that he had one of the final pieces he needed to finish the fin. He still needed to do the modifications to the saddle that were too radical to manage under Dan's nose without the man commenting, but he was down to five days left and desperately felt the time ticking away. He waved before leaving, as Dan went back to a finicky bit he had been working on with a wave back.

And now there was more work to be done. Mike lifted his head. He still had five full days. He could do it.

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A/N: *curls into a fetal position.* I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I know it's been forever since I updated. I've been crazy busy at work, then I caught a minor cold, y'know the ones that make you just feel tired and cranky? Then still busy and just not feeling like writing when I would be off work. And about that one chapter I had written and just needed to type? Um, yeah, that would now be the chapter after this one. Oops.

Also since FjordMustang wondered why Dan wouldn't think about dragon riding I'm going to post the explanation I gave her, the idea is so far out there in this world. He can see Mike trying to get close to one, but the idea of riding is kind of like having a complete rookie ask you to help then build a kayak. You might picture them trying rapids beyond their ability, but having them say "Thanks! Now I'm off to try using this to go over the middle of Niagara Falls!" It's a little beyond what most rational people would picture. There might be urban myths and legends that it's possible, but it's far more likely the authorities are going to be dredging the rookie's body from the river. Hope that clears things up.


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

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Mike looked over the assembled harness and equipment critically. It worked, at least all of the pieces individually worked. However he could see every substitution, every modification that led to it being functional (hopefully) rather than perfect. From the saddle that was made for a horse more or less fitted to the dragon, down to the fin with it's patchwork design of leather (getting thick enough pieces to work had been a bear in that pile. Not to mention it had contained some rather unusual colors he'd found when sorting through it. Really, why would you dye leather electric blue?), if it were a car it was closer to Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang than a Formula 1 racer, and putting it on Toothless was like decorating a star model for the red carpet with cheap air-dry clay jewelry made by a five year old. But he had to console himself that this was the best he could do on his own with out involving other people. Dan had been risky enough, and an expert in design and manufacture could've done a better job, but such a person would've started with the difficult question of "What were you _thinking_?" and then gone on to the really hard ones.

Toothless shifted, craning his neck to look over the entire ensemble. This was the first time the whole kit had been put on the dragon. Mike had placed bits on before, he'd tested the saddle's size, as well as how well the climbing harness he'd found for himself would work with it (fine, at least on the ground), and attached the fin a couple of times to make sure it was the right size and could open and shut as needed. But seeing the bits and pieces versus the whole thing was a totally different feeling.

He checked the pedals he'd managed with his hands to make sure the tension was right. At least it _looked_ right. He hoped it would work, he was almost out of time. His family was here only two more days. The past three had been so hectic he was amazed he'd gotten through them. At times he'd even snuck out of the cabin to do a bit more work by moon and fire light next to Toothless. He has found an awl to help with stitching the pieces he'd cut from the lousy hides to piece together. Granted it was bent in half along the haft of the metal, probably by someone using it as a pry-bar, but it helped puncture the leather and he'd bought some thread and a needle to sew with.

Mike felt his stomach twist at the thought of how short a time he had left. Originally he'd simply been thrilled to have a chance to see dragons in the wild, now there was the dread of separating from Toothless. He knew he could return after high school, do a road trip out here before college, but the idea of four years of separation was driving him crazy. And he hadn't even left yet. He hoped to figure out how the fin would work, maybe do a few short glides from small (very, very small) cliffs in the area today. Mike still wasn't sure how to get to a real flight, he wished he had at least two more weeks, maybe more to really test things out.

"Okay buddy, let's see if I got the tension right so I can operate the pedals with my feet." Mike said aloud as he patted the dragon's shoulder before climbing onto the saddle. He promptly fastened the carabiner clips to rings that he'd replaced on the saddle. He wasn't sure what they were originally for, saddlebags? Maybe rope or just another place to add normal stirrups to, but they worked perfectly for anchoring him to the saddle, though he'd realized that if he had the time he'd make some sort of addition to his own harness that would go over his shoulders, rather than simply around his legs and waist. Toothless has seemed pleased for some reason at the snap link of the carabiner clips, sniffing them over and giving an approving croon at them.

Mike busied himself, making sure the pedals could move and adjust them if necessary. The left was sticking a bit so he leaned over to poke at it, not really noticing the Night Fury had shifted to his feet and had moved closer to the cliff except in passing as he shifted to stay in the saddle. He was hoping that the rope he'd found hadn't started fraying already. It had taken forever to find a long enough piece in decent shape as it was.

They had started to hang out at this particular cliff edge shortly before Mike had finished working at Dan's. He'd started assembling the pieces into a whole here. Nearby there was, well not really a cave, but an overhang that was deep enough that it was dry at the very back, Mike was able to wrap everything in the rest of the ponchos he'd gathered from his cabin and everything stayed pretty well dry, if not warm. Toothless enjoyed lazying about in the sun that perfectly caught the cliff, and both had a beautiful view of the valley the campgrounds were situated in. Though today, while sunny now, he could see a dark line to the west that looked to be some nasty weather headed their way. Probably not for a couple of hours though.

Mike was really not focusing on the view at the moment, being far more interested in adjusting the line's tension until it felt right. Which he tried not to think about how he knew it felt "right". Toothless frequently shifted around anyway, generally moving to where he could get better sun. Just because Mike was on his back didn't mean the dragon wouldn't move to a more comfortable position.

The jumping off the side of the cliff, however. That was new.

Mike screamed in complete abject terror. They were falling! He was going to die!

Time really did slow down when you were near death he realized. Despite the paralyzing horror at the quickly approaching ground, he had time to notice how Toothless didn't seem panicked, only determined. He saw the way the treetops were coming closer. And then, at that moment he felt something inside of him change. Like the part he'd been listening to recently, whispering about going into the woods, how to make the harness, all the bits and pieces through his life that made him a little different from anybody else had melded into him. All the dreams, the hunches, everything. No longer a feeling, a different part, just him.

And at that moment he found himself shifting his weight like so, adjusting the pedals of the harness this way. Something completely foreign, yet so familiar he swore he could do it in his sleep. Like he was born to do this.

The trees were no longer growing larger, instead they were speeding past beneath the two of them. Toothless roared, beating his wings to soar upwards. Mike clung to the harness for dear life even as he moved with the dragon to help him fly. Exhilaration replaced terror and he found himself whooping with glee as they flew, diving and spinning for the fun of it.

It was similar to his dreams in the way a Polaroid picture could show a mountain. It didn't really convey the true feeling of being there. Feeling the wind whip his face, grinning so hard his face hurt, Mike was in heaven. He saw how small everything below was, only to have it grow larger suddenly as the Night Fury dove, skimming above the trees before regaining height, obviously enjoying himself as well.

Far too quickly for his taste he realized that they were heading back to the cliff. Toothless back-winged rapidly as they approached, landing rather heavily rather than gracefully as Mike had somehow been expecting. He de-attached his harness from the saddle, and slid off, spinning around in a circle grinning like a loon.

"That was awesome! The most… Most… Everything ever!" He crowed, coherence lost for the moment. He felt energy zinging through his body, he wanted to run, to laugh, to race around and scream like a toddler force-fed chocolate covered expresso beans. He turned, still smiling widely, to look at the dragon who was still standing, spreading and folding his wings, making quiet moaning sounds.

Mike suddenly realized that this was the first time in centuries the dragon had actually used his wings seriously for flight. Not just flaps to help with jumps or glides, but actually working them.

"Aw man, are you okay?" He asked as he gently put on hand on the dragon's shoulder. He felt the muscles twitch slightly under his hand. Mike remembered the way his sister had complained about her aching back and legs after she went horseback riding. He also remembered how she had ticked off Drew by co-opting the bathroom to soak in the tub. While they didn't have a nice tub to soak out the pain, Mike figured a massage might help. He began to press harder at the smooth shoulder, rubbing in circles, pressing as hard as he could. At first he felt Toothless stiffen, but as he worked along the shoulders and around the base of each wing the dragon relaxed. Actually the description was closer to melted. Pretty soon he had a pile of happy purring dragon laid out next to him. It was hard work giving a dragon a massage. Besides the hard muscles there were the slick scales that his fingers occasionally caught on. By the time Toothless was completely at ease Mike had worked off the adrenaline he'd gained during the short flight.

Mike looked down at Toothless and smiled. The dragon opened one eye to look at him. The dragon hummed at him and he found himself yawning and rubbing at his eyes. The dragon curled himself on his side, lifting one wing easily, without the signs of pain he'd shown earlier. Mike stretched and crawled underneath the dark membrane and snuggled up against the Night Fury's side. It was still early. He had at least two hours before his parents were back, that was plenty of time for a nap. He found himself yawning again and was asleep seconds after his eyes closed.

* * *

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There was one minor problem that neither of the two had taken into account. That problem? That it was no longer the 10th century. This was the 21st century, the century of interconnected information sharing. Of everybody sharing everything they saw immediately.

For one it was simply that such ideas had never existed when he was around humans. It could take months for information to get from one country to another and by then they were likely so far changed from what happened it might as well have been something from a tale-spinner.

For the other it was distraction. The need to build, to marvel, to _be_, here and now wiped all thoughts of the surrounding world out of his head completely. It wasn't by choice really, simply that it was so normal it really didn't register with him as long as it didn't keep him from what he was trying to accomplish here.

Within seconds of their take-off several of the tourists aimed their cameras at the sight of a dragon in the air, just by habit. On one dive one of them managed to zoom in enough to notice the human on the dragon's back. Within seconds of that realization everybody else focused on the dragon doing acrobatics in the air.

Within five minutes the first video titled "OMG Dragon Rider!1!" was posted to Youtube. Several more followed quickly.

Within ten minutes the Park service had been notified.

Within twenty they were receiving calls from local and national media.

* * *

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Addie threw the phone down in disgust before flopping down in one of the decrepit office chairs next to the desk. Disgusting vultures. Every single phone call from news media, respectable or otherwise, eventually devolved into "have you found/identified the body yet?" She scratched at her hair, feeling tired.

She'd been thrilled to get an internship here at Rocky Mountain National Park. It was considered one of the highest regarded parks to work for, and would look great on her resume. Not to mention that the vagaries of working in and around dragons was fascinating to her Natural Resource Management degree. Now however…

She rolled her chair over to one of the desks with a computer that actually was fast enough to load video without stuttering. Bringing up the dragon rider clip she watched it for the first time. They'd all been told that some idiot had been filmed on a dragon and immediately went into damage control mode, locking down the park, trying to identify who it had been, where they might find the dragon, rounding up and checking on everybody within the park, everything that needed to be done that she was pretty sure nobody had actually watched this video. Tracking down all the people wasn't as easy as it sounded as the number of people registered to stay at the park didn't mean the number of people within the park at the time. Not to mention all of the scientists scattered to the far winds to observe the various species, dragon and other. Hell she'd spent two hours on an ATV going out to check on far-flung blinds where said scientists tried to observe wild dragons unobserved themselves. She'd gotten her backside chewed more than once while checking on them as the noisy vehicle startled and chased off the creatures they were trying to watch.

She gazed at the video, setting her chin in the palm of her hand. She looked at the video, really seeing it suddenly. Addie hit the mouse to start the video from the beginning. Her jaw dropped. The triple fins, the speed… The black color. Oh my god…

"Why are you sitting around? We have a full-blown emergency going on here y'know."

She blinked looking up at Grant who was glaring at her. He had circles starting to form under his eyes already.

"Have you seen the video?" She asked him.

"Haven't had the time. Some idiot decided to try and ride a dragon and I've been trying to find him or her." Grant snapped at her.

Addie glared right back at him. "And what _kind_ of dragon did this idiot try to ride?"

Grant opened his mouth to rant back at her and paused. "It was a… Hang on, was it a Nightmare? I haven't the video, really. Why? Does it really matter what probably ate him? Or her?

In return Addie restarted the video clip from the beginning, turning the monitor so Grant could see it. She watched as Grant started off irritated and then startled, and then stunned. He paused it around the same time she had, when there was an almost perfect outline of the dragon from below.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks like the outline of a Night Fury. Since none of the scientists have been having raptures I'm assuming we haven't had any unusual visitors recently." Addie started, "which means that-"

"It's Loki…" Grant finished, grabbing a chair and falling back into it.

"It's Loki. Who can't fly. Who's known for two things, not flying and being a cussed pain to track down." Addie replied.

"Which means that instead of one question 'who was stupid enough to climb on a dragon's back?' we have two. A- How did they track down the most reclusive dragon in the park, and B- how did they get him in the air?" Grant leaned back in the chair.

"Yup. That about sums it up." Addie added. "Any idea who it might be? We've been tracking people down for the past two hours."

"There's still a few possibilities. One family is missing a son, apparently the kid has been hanging around the park, unescorted." Grant shook his head disgustedly. "Serves them right if he gets eaten. They claim he's stayed either the campsite or on tours, but if they weren't watching how would they know? Otherwise there's a couple of researchers unaccounted for and one grad student."

Addie winced at hearing a kid could've been killed. It was bad enough finding that some biologist had decided to not follow the rules and all you found was some scattered equipment, it was far worse to think some kid had gotten killed.

"Teams are set up." Grant started after a bit of quiet. "Ranger Mitchell sent them towards the cliff where it looked like the dragon landed. If it's Loki he's probably already moved on, but that's the only lead we have."

"Tranq gas and bullets, if necessary?" Addie asked. While they were a dragon reserve, any dragon that showed signs of being a man-eater had to be dealt with before such a thing became a habit. Or worse, before they started to range outside the boundaries looking for a meal.

Grant nodded. They both looked at each other. Loki wouldn't have been ridden if he didn't _want_ to be, hell the dragon generally wasn't even seen without effort. Ridden and, far more shockingly, flown was just baffling.

"It'll be settled when we find whoever did it. One way or another." Grant announced. "And I need to get moving again, we'll have the press here probably before breakfast."

Addie grimaced and nodded. It didn't help that the last known attempt at riding a dragon had been back in 1982, giving a feeling of shocking newness to the whole thing and making everybody talk about it. The phone started ringing again and she gave it a dirty look before picking it up, giving Grant a wave as he left to do whatever else needed doing.

* * *

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Toothless slowly came to. The aching stiffness in his wings and back had completely faded. Between his species' quick healing and the wonderful rubdown by his Mike, there was barely a twinge to be felt.

He glanced at the boy at his side feeling fondness and complete acceptance permeate his entire being. Beneficence's tale was now not just a story but complete truth. Watching Mike struggle to build something that resembled his old flying harness had been unsettling at times. Past memories of Hiccup modifying this lever, or adjusting his tail fin had been overlaid with a boy occasionally holding two pieces like he had no idea what to do with them, only to matter-of-factly fit them into the whole. Flashes of recognition mixed with complete foreign-ness. Part of him was drawn to the boy, with only his stubbornness keeping him somewhat aloof. Not that he succeeded very often at that, finding himself play wrestling with the boy, or letting the human lean against him as they looked at the clouds after Mike had finished whatever part he was working on for the day.

Feeling the completed harness on his back once again, he simply couldn't wait any longer. He needed an answer, one way or another. He'd gotten to his feet, ambling over to the edge of the cliff, feeling Mike shift on his back as he poked and prodded at the contraption he'd made. Toothless had looked over the panorama. He didn't have gods to pray to, but he hoped, based on the flashes of almost memory he'd seen in this human's eyes, that this wouldn't turn out to be a suicide run.

He spread his wings and leapt into the air. And began to fall. He controlled his fear, focusing on holding his wings as steady as he could, trying without much hope of pulling off a slight glide rather than a complete tumble. Grief began to fill him as he knew that even if he were likely to survive, the human that he was beginning to care for wouldn't.

Then, the change. The feeling of complete rightness he'd missed for centuries as the boy shifted both his weight and his feet and all of a sudden they were speeding along, so close he could've bitten off a couple of tree-tops as they passed. He shifted the beats of his wings, feeling a thrill pass along him as his human, no, his Rider followed and they soared into the air.

He loosed a roar of pure joy, feeling whole for the first time in a long, long time. He immersed himself in the dives and loops he'd assumed were out of his reach forever. It ended far too soon for him, he would've happily flown to the moon before landing, but his long disused muscles along his back and in his wings informed him he had two choices. Land or fall. His landing was one of his worse ones, not as bad as the out of control landing when he'd lost his tail fin while wrapped in ropes, but far worse than any landing he'd had since he was a hatchling. At least he didn't land on his nose.

Mike slid off his back, dancing around in a fashion he'd've found highly amusing if all of his muscles hadn't picked that time to scream in agony over the abuse he'd put them through. If he could've he would have cried at the pain, as it was he managed a moan. It probably wasn't as bad as when he lost his fin, but time had dulled the memories of that time and this was definitely the most pain he'd been in for a long time. Then hands, soft but firm, rubbing at the pain, soothing. As the pain faded he rejoiced, not really in the flight though that was still part of it, but in the feeling of having a Rider again. He would not allow _anything_ to separate them now, not when he'd finally found him again.

His head jerked up, coming to wakefulness quickly. Mike moved slightly, shifting at his side. He knew he'd heard something. He began to growl lowly, causing his Rider to jerk slightly and get up. Something was out there. Seeing his human was up now, he got to his own feet, sniffing to what was coming.

He knew that it had been a bit and his Rider would usually be back at the human campsite by now, but he had _him_ now. The dragon certainly wouldn't let anything happen to him. He didn't really pay attention, focusing on what he'd scented. Humans, their machines, and… Oh. That nasty smell that made one weak. His growl became louder, causing Mike to come closer to him.

"Toothless? What's wrong?"

He turned his head back and forth and snarled, he'd been do wrapped up in his human he hadn't smelled the others approach. The stink that clung from their noisy machines followed them, letting him know they'd been encircled. He began to shove his Rider behind him, it was closer to the cliff which wasn't the safest place, but it allowed him to interpose himself between the boy and the oncoming humans.

* * *

.

"Wha… Huh?" Mike rubbed at his eyes. Suddenly they snapped open. "Oh crap!" The sun was hidden by dark clouds so he wasn't quite sure what time it was, his watch had been lost during one of the trips out to Dan's. The clouds that had been a goodly distance off were rolling overhead, dark enough to create a kind of twilight below the tree branches.

He realized Toothless was looking out into the trees, away from the cliff and growling. The dragon's head turned back and forth, scanning the trees warily.

"Toothless? What's wrong?" Mike peered into the trees himself. He couldn't see very well in the dim light. He was knocked back suddenly by Toothless, finding himself shoved back as Toothless growled louder.

Mike knew he was screwed. The sun was probably going down, clouds alone wouldn't account for how dark it was getting. His parents had probably been back long enough to really start freaking out. And now Toothless was getting between him and the rest of the forest making him worry that another dragon was coming close. They'd never been bothered yet, but…

"Kid?" He heard a man's voice, querying.

"Um, hello?" He ventured back. People? Why were they here?

"It's okay. We're going to help." The man called back soothingly. Despite the calm tone in the man's voice Toothless snarled in that direction.

"Help? Wha… Wait! Wait! It's okay!" Mike finally woke up enough to realize that they thought he was in danger. He shoved at Toothless to get the Night Fury to move, which was rather similar to shoving at a hillside. With about as much success.

"Toothless, c'mon, move," he growled at the dragon who was still watching the trees, jerking his head back and forth, apparently keeping an eye on wherever the other humans were. He received a glance and a short purr from the dragon before Toothless resumed watch.

"I'm okay, really!" Mike called back. "Toothless is just being stubborn."

There was muttering coming from the left as he was facing. Now he could see about four or five people gathered there. From the way they were glancing to either side he assumed there were more teams around.

"Kid, Mike right?" The man started again, the calm sounding more forced, "That is a wild animal. I know it seems fun to be around, but sooner or later it will turn on you. We're going to get you to safety, but you need to listen to us."

Mike gave one last shove at Toothless' shoulder before huffing and matter-of-factly rolling under the dragon. Getting up he dusted himself off, grinning slightly to himself at the sound of outrage from the dragon behind him. He turned and reached out and Toothless must not have been too upset as he was allowed to give the Night Fury a quick scratch of reassurance. He heard the quiet chatter from the people surrounding them grow a bit louder at the casual behavior he showed towards the dragon.

"Okay, so I hadn't really planned this, and I'm not sure how to start. I'm sure my parents are freaking out right now, but since you're here I wanted to show-"

Mike had taken a few steps away from the dragon to try and calm down the rangers, or whatever they were, who were obviously tense. Now he found himself thrown to the dirt as an adult covered him yelling, "The kid's covered!"

And that was when it all hit the fan. He barely had a chance to realize he was on the ground with somebody holding him there when he heard a scream of pure rage from Toothless. He'd never heard something so terrifying in his life, if he wasn't completely sure the Night Fury wouldn't hurt him he would've been frozen in fear. Shortly after that sound, the man on top of him was knocked away. Toothless was standing above him now. He rolled slightly to see Toothless' head above him with lips peeled back, baring all of the dragon's teeth, just about to dart forward and bite the man who'd grabbed him.

"No!" He yelled, smacking the dragon's chest above him. Toothless may not have wanted to listen, but he did, pulling back and spinning in place to use his tail to smack the human instead of biting, as the man tried to get to his feet. Mike froze as the dragon moved, despite the speed, not a single claw came close to snagging him.

Mike rolled out from under the dragon as chaos broke out, trying to get to his feet and decide which side to try and calm down first. Toothless moved again, shoving him back away from the humans. There was another yell from one of the groups of humans and suddenly a canister spewing a nasty smelling gas landed so close to him he yelped. Toothless shrieked, shoving him further back before giving a strange sounding screech. A blue white light flashed, exploding the canister and creating a decent sized crater along with several other small fires.

And hello there night-blindness, Mike thought, eyes dazzled by the brightness. He groped at the dragon next to him, as close as he was to the cliff edge he would feel better being on Toothless rather than stumble and find himself falling face-first off the cliff. One hand managed to grasp leather and he hung on, blinking as he began to see something other than purple and green blotches. Granted the view didn't make much more sense, humans running around yelling, Toothless letting loose another blast. At least the dragon wasn't aiming specifically at the humans, he seemed to be going for rocks around them which caused splashy bolts of fire, but didn't seem to be hurting anybody. And with the smell of heavy rain on the air, no fire would have a chance to spread too far.

Mike pulled himself into the saddle, snapping his safety harness and getting his feet set on the pedals. He leaned over Toothless' neck to be close.

"How about we leave here? I think they might listen better in the light of morning." Mike murmured to the dragon.

The still tense dragon below him rumbled deep in his chest then turned towards the cliff. Mike had a bit of fear pass through him as he realized exactly how close he'd been to the edge, but didn't really have time to focus on that before the Night Fury did a replica of their afternoon flight, diving over the side.

This time Mike moved with the dragon with confidence. The two of them quickly leveled off and soared upwards.

Mike wondered exactly how big of a pile of trouble he would find himself in tomorrow.

.

.

.

A/N: This is the chapter I had all written up, so I decided to post it rather than make you all wait. Thanks to everybody who's been reading and waiting (im)patiently. Those messages I got when I was stuck cheered me up, even when they were simply "Write More Naow!" So, here's more.

Random note: No spell-check recognizes the word carabiner. It's a real word, knows it, but every spell-check I've run flags it as being wrong. Go figure.


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon. I do own a good number of the toys and merch, and am eagerly awaiting the next book "How to Steal a Dragon's Sword".

Warning: I did use some swearing in this chapter. If you have never seen a PG-13 movie you may learn a few new words. Otherwise I think you're good to go. :)

The clouds that had rolled in were dark and threatening looking. Mike heard rolls of thunder but they sounded far off and he didn't see any lightning. Must've been a good distance off he figured. He was still getting nervous though, flying in the dark during the rain the second time ever that the two of them tried the contraption he'd built did not sound fun.

A noise penetrated his focus, it sounded like thunder, but regular, a thumping… He shifted his seat to look behind him. And yelped. A helicopter was behind them, granted it was just an observation one from the park, not like it was a military one, but still startling. Toothless craned his own head and seemed to give a disgruntled grunt before angling his wings and beating them strongly, sending them upwards. Even as Mike moved his feet to compensate he realized they were shooting practically straight up towards the nasty looking clouds. His fingers clamped down on the saddle so hard he knew they would ache once he convinced them to let go.

Now they were flying through damp, heavy mist that quickly saturated his t-shirt and jeans. Soaked and becoming cold and hearing thunder much, much closer, all Mike wanted was to be on solid ground again. The winds in the clouds forced both boy and dragon to keep moving, shifting as the winds did. Toothless was already starting to strain in his wing beats. Mike really didn't want to get struck by lightning. He was only fourteen! He didn't want to die, granted he'd die doing what he'd always dreamed of, but the dreams had never been this cold or uncomfortable.

And then the rains hit. A wave of drenching, horribly cold water spattering against them. Toothless actually yelped, closing his wings and causing the two of them to fall like a stone. Once they fell below the cloud cover the Night Fury reopened them, turning the fall into a shallow dive. Now the dragon was flying, head swiveling back and forth as though he were looking for something. Apparently the bad weather had caused the helicopter to land, as bad as the rain was it wasn't like the pilot of it had a chance in hell of seeing them anyway.

Mike hoped Toothless was looking for a place to land. He was pressed as close as possible to the dragon below him, trying to get some of the heat the dragon normally produced into his rapidly chilling body. He was sniffling and really wanted to wipe the wet hair from his eyes, but he couldn't get his hands to let go of the saddle in cooperation.

Toothless must've seen what he was looking for as he darted down in a sudden dive, causing Mike to cry out. Then he was back-winging, and then landing and Mike wanted to fall off and kiss the wet ground. He did slide off of Toothless who was fluttering his wings again, groaning. The dragon came beside him, shoving him in a direction until he began to walk that way, arms wrapped around himself, shivering with shoes squelching at every step.

Looking down he realized the grass was cut, which made him wonder where they were. Had Toothless brought him back to the campsite? He hoped not since he really didn't want to be thrown back into the drama again. Though he really wanted to reassure his family too…

Then they passed a neat, if slightly flattened by the rain, flowerbed. That was when he realized he was in the garden that was the territory of the Chinese dragon, an Imperial something. Beneficence? The name was longer than that…And oh, god he was off the path. He'd been following the rather insistent Toothless and they were walking across the pretty lawns he and his family had looked at a few weeks ago. The rain had eased up a bit and he peered around looking for the furious dragon to come after him even as he still followed the Night Fury.

Toothless let loose a rather loud snarl that trailed into one of the complex sounds he usually made. They kept walking until Mike could make out the pagoda building that had been a distance away when he'd visited with his parents, now it was right in front of him. Toothless smacked him in the head with his wing when Mike hesitated at the entrance, and growled slightly before the dragon padded in.

Beneficence was lying curled within the base of the building. Mike was shocked at exactly how huge the other dragon was. Laying down the dragon's shoulder was at least two feet above Toothless' when the Night Fury was standing. The other dragon looked over Toothless, shifting and moving to make room for the Night Fury within the building, before peering at Mike. Toothless turned and looked at Mike who was very carefully sidling past the Chinese dragon and made a sound that almost resembled an impatient bark.

Mike quickly hurried over, almost running to get back near the dragon he knew. He ran his hands over the saddle, removing it and trying to lay it out neatly beside the wall of the building on the other side of Toothless. He hoped the saddle would dry okay since he didn't have anything to clean it with, or condition it, all of the stuff he'd been using had been left at the cliff side. After he'd finished that he found himself being pushed and shoved by Toothless' wings and tail until he was pressed against the dragon's side again. He slid down until he was curled against Toothless again, it was hard to believe that probably less than an hour ago he'd been in the same position. Now he was within a building listening to the rain, now slowly pattering against the roof tiles. He slowly stopped shivering and began to relax. Unfortunately this meant he was now free to think about how quickly everything had gone wrong.

-xXx-

Toothless was seething as he flew away from the cliff. His Rider had tried to talk to the others and they had _attacked_ him. He'd been so enraged that it was only feeling the touch of his human that kept him from killing the others. It had made him think again, rather than react. Ever since his Hiccup he had generally avoided killing humans, though when they went out of their way to pester him he felt justified in hurting them. He had been upset at seeing Mike knocked away, but once the boy was on his back again he was calmer. Hearing Mike's murmur about leaving he had to agree that it was the wisest idea, even with the oncoming storm.

And oh what fun that was. Or at least he remembered enjoying flying through storms before. Now with his wings giving warning twinges, it wasn't as good as memories had led him to believe. Fortunately they quickly lost the human flying thing. Not that is was hard, as noisy as it was you could hear it coming for miles. He'd listened to the other dragons occasionally discuss the irritation of having some metal thing fly through the air as though it belonged there. _They_ ruled the sky, not humans.

Between his long-disused wings and the rain he knew they would need to land, and soon. He could hear teeth chattering from his Rider, who wore even less than what Hiccup had during the summer. He could feel shivers where the boy was pressed close to him as well. Toothless couldn't exactly remember how fragile humans were. While this was simply a brisk summer rain, he had vague memories of humans getting cold and getting sick. Dying even, occasionally. Granted that was usually during the winter, but this human was no stubbornly strong Viking either.

He remembered one flight he and Hiccup shared right towards the end of the fall season. It had been rather cold and they had both gone home soaked. Hiccup had had a slight sniffle when they had been arrived. Astrid had not been amused. As he remembered it she had ordered Hiccup to bed, and smacked him if he tried to leave it for the next three days. Did that mean his new Rider needed a bed? Or just to get out of the wet?

Normally if he decided he wanted a cave he'd simply locate one and move in. If there happened to be an inhabitant, dragon or animal, he'd simply snarl and maybe have a quick fight until they gave up and either chose to share or to leave. But having a human to look after changed things. What if the other dragon went after Mike, seeing him as a weakness? Then Toothless would have to kill them, possibly traumatizing the human. It would be bad.

Wait… Beneficence had that human building his tenders had made him. Even as much space as the dragon took up, he ought to be able to shove over enough for the two of them to fit. And Beneficence would understand where Toothless would be coming from in the need to protect his Rider.

He had already dropped below the clouds, but now he had a destination to look for. He wished he could simply keep flying, take his human someplace far from here to keep him safe, but he was out of condition. Between this flight and the first he was feeling worn. He searched as he flew along for the wall that would outline Beneficence's territory. His head twisted back and forth, becoming more and more agitated as the shivers from the human on his back increased. Finally seeing the wall through the sheets of rain had him diving. He heard a faint whimper from behind him, but his Rider still moved with him.

Landing was far better this time, but he felt his rider tumble off less than gracefully. Seeing the now drenched boy standing there he shoved at him until Mike began to follow.

"Beneficence, shove over!' He growled once he was closer to the silly fancy that passed for a building. The layers and curliques, tile and everything seemed ridiculously overdone to him. He preferred the solid carvings the humans he had once lived with had used to decorate.

Beneficence poked his nose out, snorting slightly at the rain. "What brings your cheerful self here Nameless?"

Toothless walked in, shaking to get some of the wet off as Mike followed behind him. Beneficence snorted again at the brief shower, pulling back slightly.

"I am no longer nameless," Toothless replied proudly. "Nor alone." He reached out with a wing, hurrying Mike inside. Had the human no sense? It was dry in here. He found himself growling lowly when the other dragon sniffed at Mike.

"So I see." Beneficence shifted, curling tighter to one wall and allowed Toothless to curl in a different place. Mike had apparently regained enough movement to haul the harness off of him, laying it out in an open area of the floor to dry. Toothless kept one eye on him and the other on Beneficence. While he was pretty sure the other dragon wouldn't hurt his human, after seeing the humans viciously attack his rider he wasn't going to trust anybody. Once he had Mike safely nestled against him again he relaxed slightly. And slightly more once he heard the faint sounds humans made when sleeping. He curled one wing over the boy to help keep him warm.

"You said you are no longer nameless," Beneficence asked, keeping his own voice to a low, soothing rumble. "What shall I call you?"

"Toothless," he replied, rather warily. While every dragon knew of his name, knew of his accomplishment, and knew better than to mock it, some had seen the fact that he had set it aside as a reputation due to the foolishness of the name. He hadn't ever seen it that way. His name was his, silly or not it had been given to him by one of the most important beings in his life. He hesitated, the next part was too important to have the other dragon mock him about. "My Rider knew my name without anybody telling him."

Beneficence blinked. The larger dragon seemed startled, before dipping his head. "You are welcome here with your rider, Toothless." The dragon paused. "It has been a long time since there has been a dragon who has allowed a rider."

"Centuries, yes." Toothless agreed, lifting his wing to gaze at his human.

Beneficence curled a bit tighter, cocking his head in a slightly mocking way. "I do recall you claiming you would accept no human until you touched the sky again."

"And I didn't," Toothless countered testily, though the emotion drained away quickly. He shifted again, conscious of how the need to curl protectively around his Rider curtailed a lot of his ability to emphasize what he was saying. The simple joy he put into his words couldn't truly express what he wanted to say with wings fully spread and body held proudly. "We flew. We touched the clouds and flew together. Wind and Sky how I missed it,"

"I have to admit I am slightly curious as to why you came here, however." Toothless could hear the eagerness in the other dragon's voice. The idea of him the loner, the one who had lived with humans before deciding to avoid them completely would be gossip fodder for the other dragon for years. Even those who tended to avoid Beneficence for the way he sort of still lived among humans would be willing to come and listen to his telling of this tale.

"You were the only one I assumed would allow my Rider in without tiresome displays of dominance or fights." Toothless replied irritably, flicking his tail to cover his human who had shivered slightly. He turned and looked at Beneficence. "They attacked him." He growled low and threateningly.

Beneficence jerked his head back. "Other dragons? Really, I would assume seeing you beside the human might make even the dimmest Terror pause-"

"Not dragons, humans. Humans actually attacked him!" Now Toothless' voice was a loud enough roar that Mike shifted and murmured, causing the dragon to quiet, his tail flicking swiftly to show his agitation. "I would understand them attacking _me_," he snorted softly, "it wouldn't be the first time. But to throw my Rider to the ground, crush him into it… I wasn't going to stand for that."

Toothless seethed quietly for a bit, the other dragon staying silent as well, in shock or horror he wasn't sure of and didn't care. He needed a way to get the humans to leave his Rider alone. Then a vague memory came to him. He blinked slightly before turning to the larger dragon. "Didn't you say you could speak to your humans?"

"I did at one time…" Beneficence seemed rather embarrassed, as Toothless looked at him confused. "Haven't you noticed how their language shifts ridiculously quickly at times? I did speak it, but fell out of the habit for the past, oh, few hundred years while waiting for my human to turn up again, and by then what I knew how to pronounce had changed a bit from what was spoken. Not to mention the humans had forgotten as well and considered it only a tale. Given that none of them were my human, I didn't really see any point in correcting them. By the time I came here none of them really knew or cared about the old stories, and my caretakers now are second and third generations in this country and don't even speak the modern tongue of their homeland. They more or less follow the instructions that were decided when they built this place. I'm afraid that only a scholar would understand me, and if I tried to communicate to them the announcements of 'amazing talking dragon' would drown out anything I was trying to say. You know how easily riled humans can get. A broody female Nightmare doesn't even begin to compare."

Toothless sighed, well there went that possibility of resolution. He found himself yawning, it had been a tiring day. Flying, fighting, flying again, he hadn't been so busy in many years. He settled a bit more. "Well, I will protect this rider even as I protected my previous one. I will not allow anyone to harm him."

-xXx-

Mike woke up with a crick in his neck and a feeling of complete confusion. Where was he? It was dark. He jerked upright only to bounce off of a dark leathery thing.

Dark, leathery… Wings! He moaned slightly as everything that had happened (today? yesterday?) came back to him. The wing was retracted over his head, however the first thing he saw wasn't the familiar dark face of Toothless, but the bright colored, curious, and way too close head of the Chinese dragon studying him.

He jerked back with a yelp, stumbling over one of Toothless' paws before falling against the dragon's side. Toothless gave a faint grunt, waiting until Mike regained his feet before rolling up onto his own. The dragon made a chirruping growl and gently butted his head against Mike's middle.

And that was just weird. He'd fallen asleep against Toothless when he'd been working on the saddle and harness, and had been butted before, but those had been along the lines of "Wake-up, look alive!"-type head butts. This one was more of a "Have a nice sleep?"-type. And the fact that he was comparing and contrasting head butts showed that he definitely had not gotten enough sleep. Or something.

The larger dragon beside the two of them stretched, his claws scraping the stone of the floor, and that would explain why Mike felt so gawdawful sore today. Stone, even with a dragon cushioning him, was not comfortable. The other dragon seemed almost amused. Or kind of like that. The dragon rumbled in a deep, almost chiming way, his tail and wings flicking in a kind of formalized way. Toothless on the other hand, growled a bit and did a shimmying stretch. It seemed too ritualized to Mike. It stuck out, was out of place for what other people called animals. But then he was still groggy, maybe he was seeing things and Beneficence had left before he could really study it. And wouldn't the people here who studied dragons all of the time know more than him?

Mike walked over to the entryway, only to hear the buzzing roar of a helicopter overhead. He quickly retreated to the shadows within the building and carefully peered around the side of the doorway. There was one low flying one, just to the side heading away. He could make out a W and several other letters following it on the side of the helicopter. A news station. Oh crap, how many people had seen their flight?

He felt a bump from behind him and turned, seeing the now eager Night Fury practically dancing in impatience. Despite everything that was hovering over him, ready to crash down on his head, Mike couldn't help but grin at the dragon.

He went back inside, checking over the saddle and mechanics of the harness. The whole saddle looked like it could use some conditioning, but otherwise okay. The fin seemed fine, though he could feel that something to make it move easier, WD-40, grease, something, would probably be a good idea in the future. He placed the whole contraption back on the dragon, Toothless practically bouncing, his eyes firmly on the sky.

When they ventured to the entrance of the building again Mike furtively looked out and around. With the Chinese dragon gone would people come and clean in here? He didn't know and figured the two of them should get away from here pretty quick. There were no helicopters, no people. Really no people, which was strange, usually there'd be some noise from the tourists down by the gate. Once he had walked around to where he could see said gates and was startled to see them shut.

Mike turned to Toothless, who seemed highly impatient with this skulking around. Running a hand along one of the fins surrounding the dragon's face, he walked beside him before grabbing a hold of the saddle and pulling himself into it. He automatically fastened his safety harness, slightly marveling that such a movement was so familiar to him already. He then leaned down to the dragon, patting the Night Fury's neck.

"Time to face the music." He whispered as the dragon eagerly shot into the air.

-xXx-

Drew glared at the hovering vultures, pardon… "reporters," surrounding him and his family. At the moment they were distracted, listening to the park superintendent who was mouthing the same bullshit he'd been saying since the video came to light yesterday for the newly arrived news crews. It, more or less, was a summary that yes, a young man had been spotted on a dragon. Yes they had managed to find him once, but the dragon had flown away with him again, and that had completely pissed Drew off when he'd heard that update. How could the dragon fly off with his brother when they'd supposedly surrounded it? Did they just forget to take into account the fact it had wings? Oh, and the final comment the man was blustering on about now, how they had high hopes to recover the boy and reunite him with his parents.

He'd even overheard one of the park service people say that the dragon that had taken his brother _couldn't_ fly, which was an obvious sign of idiocy. He'd seen the video of it flying, hundreds had seen it fly on YouTube. Obviously that person had been smoking something.

He and the rest of his family were off to the side, under a hastily constructed canopy. Dad was busy trying to keep their mom from having a complete breakdown. She kept whispering, babbling about how she should've known… She should've suspected _something_. Which was a little crazy in and of itself. Who the heck would've thought Mike was going to go out into the woods where the dragons were. He knew his little brother was off in little ways, but he wasn't suicidal. It was just so random and crazy that no rational person would think it. But dad was keeping her calm and he and Ashley were keeping the reporters away.

He had his 6'5" frame to use to tower over most of the scrawny little scavengers. They generally backed off when he crossed his arms and loomed so he hadn't needed to get physical with anybody yet. Though if another one of them started to pester his mom with a "So when did you stop beating your kids?"-type question, he'd happily throw away his acceptance to Annapolis just so he could knock the bastard's teeth in. But he hadn't had to do that yet. Since he'd been working out since even before he'd hit puberty, he'd been filling out along with growing taller. He certainly wasn't a beanpole, and with the irritation he was feeling, he must've looked impressive enough going by the rather hesitant looks he'd received from most of the news people.

Ashley on the other hand seemed less threatening. She was sitting just behind him, filing her nails. But she was actually far more terrifying. One of the reporters had looked at him and tried to go around him by Ashley, only to get caught by her stare. A stare that said "I will take these pretty nails and shove them in your chest to rip out your still-beating heart before crushing it in front of your eyes." Nobody had taken her up on that, preferring to back away from the two of them. Apparently word had gotten around quick, as an arc had opened around them after that. While he was pretty sure she couldn't actually carry out the promise her eyes were giving, he knew from childhood that she was a nasty, knock-down, drag-out fighter. He and Mike had quickly learned that it took the two of them to take her out in a sibling fight. On your own you were toast.

The two of them had been pestered for a few soundbites, once people realized that as long as they avoided the parents, the kids weren't quite so hostile. As long as they left mom alone he didn't really care. Anyway the reporters hadn't gotten much. Ashley might want to strangle Mike when they found him, but that was a family matter, and she wasn't about to spread slanders that would only upset their parents and guarantee her a spot on Maury. She never wanted to look trashy. He on the other hand had apparently not given very interesting answers to their questions. He remembered one extremely slimy "Investigative reporter," as he'd introduced himself, who'd asked him all sorts of leading questions. "Did your brother seem secretive? Did you notice anything unusual? Does he have a history of mental illness or drug abuse?"

Drew's answer had been short and sweet. "He seemed the happiest I've seen him in a long time." Which was rather true. It was weird, but during dinners and breakfasts Mike had simply been what could only be described as bubbly and almost giddy with happiness. And somehow different…

But then Mike had always been slightly different. Not really in looks, he had the same black hair Drew did from their dad, and the same slightly dusky complexion all three of them had gotten from their mom's Italian ancestry, but he'd never fit in with their peers. While the three of them had almost gotten used to being the new kids due to their dad being transferred from base to base, he and Ashley never had the problems fitting in that Mike did. While he'd usually join whatever sports team was looking for people to get to know the other kids, Ashley managed to seem to slide into whatever cliques existed in the school like she'd been born there. She apparently manipulated them in a way Machiavelli would've admired, they always asked _her_ to join _them_. But Mike, almost within a day each and every time, would be stamped with the Weirdo Mark and everybody would avoid him. Even the other kids who weren't popular would avoid him.

Then they came here. He'd heard his mom and dad discussing how seeing dragons in real life might help Mike come to terms with his fantasies, and put them behind him. But it wasn't that Mike was out of place here, or disillusioned. It was more like he'd come home…

Suddenly Drew heard a loud, shrill, descending screech from somewhere. Above? To the side? It was almost like a jet engine noise. Drew jerked his head around to try and see where it was coming from, realizing several of the reporters around him were doing the same. Then one of the reporters pointed up. Before Drew could even look up to see what the idiot was pointing at, he was knocked back, almost trampled as people began fleeing away. One cameraman had partly tripped over him, planting a knee in his middle and knocking the wind out of him. Drew clutched his stomach, swearing in language his dad would've given him heck for if he wasn't standing protectively in front of his wife as the reporters stampeded. Drew managed to get to his feet in time to see the dark blur that was rapidly approaching the point where the Park superintendent had been speaking, his jaw fell open as the blur suddenly flicked huge, dark wings out, slowing and becoming a recognizable dragon. The dragon set down rather gently for such a dramatic entrance, though it's bright green eyes glared at the surrounding humans. It stood on stocky legs, looking extremely pissed, yet smug as well, its tail lashing back and forth.

"Okay, was that _really_ necessary now?"

That rather exasperated voice carried quite well over the silence that had fallen with the landing of the dragon.

The dragon's head ducked down and now Drew could see Mike, perched happily on the damn dragon's shoulders. His brother's hands were doing something, then he slid down the side of the dragon and came to stand beside the dragon's head. Even at this distance Drew could see the color fade from his brother's face.

"Oh, I am so dead." He saw Mike take a half step back, the dragon curling around him as he did so.

Then, from the corner of his eye, Drew saw movement. Several of the park rangers were running up, bringing in a kind of gun. Flare gun? Something like anyway, it had some sort of canister attached to it. The dragon beside his brother suddenly snarled, knocking his brother to the ground. Drew had run forward several paces before he realized Mike was unharmed, the dragon standing over him protectively, the hostility clearly for the approaching ranger.

"Aw man, didn't we go through this once already?"

Drew could only watch as his brother rolled out from under the dragon, glaring at the rangers as hard as the dragon was.

"No! Would you put that away? We can leave again you know." Mike snapped at the rangers, irritation heavy in his voice. Normally hearing his brother snapping like that would've had him laughing, Mike was about as threatening as a Chihuahua. Normally, however, his brother didn't have a snarling hell-creature on his side. "And you," here he saw Mike shove at the dragon's head beside him, "stop aggravating them." The Night Fury, that was what it had to be he'd heard Mike go over the description of the breed so many times he could probably spout them in his sleep, looked at his brother and Drew felt himself hold his breath. That creature could snap his brother in half, with one bite! But the dragon relaxed a little as the rangers backed off, even rubbing its head against his brother, making him smile. Then the dragon's head whipped around, a growl starting up as it glared at the Superintendent who had come back from wherever he'd fled to and was trying to get close to where his brother stood.

"No! No, no, no, nononono! No!" His brother's head whipped between the dragon and approaching man before he moved closer to the dragon, now half covered by one of the dragon's half-spread wings. He then turned towards the man again. "Would you people stop trying to grab me? That's what keeps upsetting him."

"Mikey? What are you doing? They're trying to help you!"

Drew jerked around, to see his mother standing behind him, a few steps farther back. He'd been so distracted by Mike and the dragon he hadn't noticed her leaving the chairs under the canopy. Her face was even paler than Mike's had been upon seeing the crowd he had faced, and her eyes were wide as she looked at Mike standing next to the dragon.

"Mom?" Drew heard the stricken sound in his brother's voice, and saw the shock on his face.

"Baby, what were you thinking?" He could also hear the stress in his mother's voice. He caught his father's eyes as the man came up behind his mom to stand protectively by her as several of the reporters had returned when they saw nobody had been burnt to a crisp yet.

"Um… You remember how that one guidance councilor told me to chase my dreams?" Drew saw Mike smile worriedly in their direction, before gesturing to the dragon beside him. "What do you do when you catch them?"

Drew cursed as their mother's eyes rolled up into her head and she began to slide to the ground. His dad caught most of her weight quickly, not letting her hit the ground. He saw his dad scoop her up and retreat to the canopy set aside for them.

Drew was making sure that none of the now clamoring reporters surrounding them followed, planting himself in front of the entrance and glaring at them threateningly. However, as he was distracted by that, he missed seeing Ashley slipping out. He saw her stalking towards their brother and the dragon, her mouth moving in what he was sure was a low voiced constant litany of curses. Mike at least looked worried as she approached. However before she could get close, the dragon beside their brother shoved him aside to snarl at her, as threatening as it'd been to the rangers.

Ashley froze, her face becoming chalk white as the dragon bared its teeth at her. Drew was able to come up behind her, getting an arm around her middle and yanking her back, retreating several feet. She swore, now at him, now that she was no longer frozen in terror from the dragon. He managed to dodge one elbow she swung back at his stomach, before shaking her.

"I know you're pissed at him." He hissed at her. "Trust me, I understand. But attacking me sure as hell isn't going to accomplish much. And do you really want to get on the news as the girl who got incinerated by a dragon?" Ashley glared at him, but wasn't trying to hit him again, which was a plus. "Can you look after mom? I mean dad's with her, but she really needs people looking after her. Please? I'll deal with Mike."

"And what the hell are you going to do?" She snarked back. "Tell the dragon hey give me my brother to smack 'cause he's being an idiot?"

Drew looked back over his shoulder, where Mike was still standing by himself, next to the dragon looking over at them. He looked like he wanted to come over to them, but also didn't want to leave the dragon. Going by the way the rangers had gathered in a huddle over to the side, he could see why his brother hadn't left. "I'll figure something out."

Ashley snorted, but obviously backed down, turning to go under the canopy. "Just please promise me you'll smack him, at least once."

"As long as I'm sure I won't lose a limb." He replied, as he turned back to study the scene. The reporters seemed to have streamed back in as fast as they had left, or possibly simply bred more, spawned perhaps. At least there was a crush between him and his brother, with a line of the rangers now trying to herd the reporters back. At least they weren't bunched together plotting against his brother, he really didn't want to watch as Mike flew off again. He slid around a number of the people by keeping to the side, getting nearer to where the rangers had congregated. It was a fairly straight and crowd-less shot from there to where his brother was. However, not getting stopped by the rangers was the problem. As was their weapons as he saw one bring out what was definitely a nasty looking weapon. It wasn't the flare gun or whatever they'd had before, this looked deadly.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

He had to snap his head around to look in shock at the shout. It was a stout, middle-aged woman who looked absolutely furious, though fortunately not at him. She had a lock on the ranger who was hefting the gun. "Do you realize that is the only known Night Fury in the Western Hemisphere? Don't you dare shoot him! I will bring you up on charges for killing an endangered species so fast you're head will spin off!" She charged up to that ranger, still shouting, with a number of other researchers trailing behind her. She began a dressing down of damn near all of the rangers in the area that a Marine drill sergeant would've been impressed by. It did however distract them, as between the researchers and the reporters, nobody was watching him.

It didn't take long to approach the dragon, even with having to circle around to avoid being seen by most of the other people present. He paused as the dragon turned and glared at him. It put one clawed foot down, said claws digging into the soft ground as the dragon flexed them.

"Mike? Would you call it off? I just want to talk." As Drew waited, he held his hands out, showing he had nothing in them. Given that all he was wearing was jeans and a t-shirt, it wasn't like he had a lot of hiding places.

"Drew?" Mike didn't walk around the dragon, instead, wiggling under it. He seemed surprised to see him. "How'd you get so close?"

"Carefully." Drew replied dryly. "Can we talk? Or is your 'dream' going to eat me?"

"You're not going to try and grab me and run, are you?" Mike asked mistrustfully, staying partly under the dragon.

"No, I promise that. Can't promise I won't smack you once though. And don't you dare say you don't deserve that at least. Ashley's planning on skinning you."

Mike studied him. "Okay, I can buy that." He patted the dragon. "It's okay Toothless, really. He's not going to hurt me." The affectionate tone was just bizarre. Like seeing a little old granny cooing to a slavering, rabid, rottweiler. But the dragon stopped growling, and as Drew slowly came closer it stretched its head out and sniffed at him. It then seemed to cock its head, an odd warble coming from it as he came close to his brother. It looked between the two of them, as Mike had crawled out from underneath and now stood next to Drew. He could swear the dragon seemed to relax slightly, and as the two of them sat down beside it the dragon went back to watching the rest of the humans surrounding them, laying down and curling around them. They were mostly concealed by the dragon's wings, with Mike relaxing against the dragon's side. Drew couldn't quite trust the creature that much, though he had the tail resting against his back.

"So… Care to explain?" Drew gestured at the dragon vaguely. "I mean…Really?"

"Uh, well…" Mike rubbed at his neck with one hand. "It's not like I planned this. Well not before we got here or anything. I mean if I hadn't seen Toothless that first day during the tour, probably nothing else would've happened."

Drew listened, fairly patiently he thought. He didn't scream "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" when Mike admitted to sneaking out to the woods to try and find the dragon. He didn't smack him when Mike admitted he got lost in the woods. He did stop him when Mike started to excitedly describe the mechanism for getting the dragon in the air, and didn't _that_ explain why all the rangers were so confused.

"Wait, wait…You got the designs from a dream?"

"Yeah, I mean I had to adjust them a bit because I wasn't sure exactly how to make some of the-"

"Just hold up." Drew held his hands up. "Dreams? Really?"

"Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but they've worked out really well, not to say I couldn't improve them, definitely somebody with training could do better-"

Drew found himself holding his head in his hands. "Just please, _please_, should you tell mom any of this, leave that part out." Mike just looked puzzled, but then kept up the story. It was crazy, yes, but his brother kind of had rock solid proof as well, in the dragon laying next to him.

"So? What now?" Mike looked at him, still worried.

"Well, first…" Drew had resettled himself during the story, and was now leaning against the dragon's side as well. It was surprisingly warm. He'd expected it to be cool, like a snake. Then he reached over and smacked his fist into Mike's upper arm.

"Ow! What the…" Mike glared at him. The dragon had craned its head around at the sound of flesh being hit.

"He deserved it." Drew told the dragon mildly, he was pretty sure he was becoming a little punch-drunk from tiredness. It looked at him, then Mike, before huffing slightly. Drew could swear it rolled its eyes as it turned back towards the reporters. "And stop glaring at me." He told Mike. "You caused mom to pass out, she's been practically panicking since last night, I don't think any of us have gotten any sleep since you disappeared. A punch to the arm that isn't even going to bruise is far less than you deserve."

"Hasn't been exactly sunshine and roses for me either." Mike muttered resentfully. "I _meant_ what are we going to do about, well, them." Here he waved over at the crowd that was concealed from them by the dragon's wing.

Drew sighed. "What were you trying do accomplish in the first place?"

"Well I really wanted to show them that I had managed to find a way to get Toothless," and Drew was still having trouble understanding why the heck his brother kept calling the dragon that, "into the air. And I wanted to show that he wasn't going to attack, but then they attacked us, and now Toothless is all stressed and all I can't figure a way to get them to stop and listen."

"Well. If you wanted to show that the dragon wasn't going to bite the limb off of anybody who came close, wouldn't seeing me next to you maybe give them pause, at least a little?"

Mike was quiet for a moment. "Well, I doubt it'd annoy them any more than I've managed already."

"Let's do that then."

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A/N: I am so sorry about the wait for this. I am still working on it, the muse just comes and goes when it will. I know what needs to happen before the end (hint, I'm guessing I'm about at the middle) but there's a lot of writing and typing before I get there. And I'll be starting a new job *does the happy dance* so I have no guarantee when the next chapter will be up. With a $10 increase in pay comes a lot more work and responsibility. I'll still try to work on this story, but please be patient.


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

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Toothless had _not_ approved of the idea of returning to the human areas. Granted, he didn't have a large number of options available, but still he didn't want to endanger his new Rider. However, his human had ridiculously flimsy clothing, no supplies, not even a basic knife for chores! How did his people expect him to survive? He knew _everyone_ carried a knife, though it had unsettled him at first. Until he realized that since humans had no useful claws or sharp teeth, they needed some kind of substitute. Then a thought occurred to him. All humans _used_ to need a knife…

He finally decided to listen to his Rider's urgings. Not that he really understood all the words. "Campsite" he knew, that was where all of the humans tended to stay. "Rangers" he was pretty sure meant the humans that had attacked his Rider, and the nonsense linking those two words together had enough of a slight whine to it he assumed they translated as some form of "Please?" It was at least more than he'd understood when getting to know his first Rider.

But he hadn't really expected the press of humans his sharp sight had picked out below him. It was a mostly fan-shaped gathering, focused on a single point. Suddenly a sense of glee filled him and he remembered the fun of hearing _"Night Fury! Get Down!"_ shouted as he dove. He chortled to himself as he decided to revisit those memories through a reenactment. Mike only made a faint gasp as he put himself into a steep dive that he quickly began to regret. Sky and Stars he was out of shape! The ache that had faded began to build up in his wings again as he held them steady, but the joy of flight made up for it as he cried out his warning scream.

And oh, how much fun it was to see the stupid humans run like rabbits as he descended. He purred to himself as he managed, despite his less than perfect condition, a perfect landing. As befit such a remarkable creature as he, of course, and gave him an added joy.

Having the humans then immediately try to attack his human on the other hand was simply irritating. Fortunately his Rider had the sense to stay by him this time. And his Rider even snarled at the larger, armed humans, even at whole groups of them. He felt so proud.

The female who had approached had an odd scent, something that picked at his memory, but couldn't place until the other male had approached calmly. The sheer fury had distorted the scent of the female, but having the second human right next to his Rider helped him place it. _Siblings_. That was what he had scented from this one and the female. After identifying the puzzle, he relaxed. Even when he heard a quiet sound of a scuffle he didn't really react. Instead it brought back memories of the decades he'd spent among his first Rider's descendants.

He'd been astonished at the fragility of Hiccup's first offspring. While a dragon's eggs were vulnerable, the hatchlings themselves were only less dangerous in comparison to their parents. By the time their scales had dried and hardened, which only took about an hour or so, their claws were hard enough to kill, as were their teeth. Comparing that to the tiny reddish worm cradled protectively in his Hiccup's hands, he honestly wondered how any human survived their first hours.

As the baby had grown he'd become more interested. He remembered crouching down behind his remaining fin, flicking it open and shut to the delight of the child. It was a good memory. Though he'd learned that a happy human young could make a shrill screech that rivaled an adult Skrill's attack scream. His ears had rung for several moments afterwards. And as more children came, the happy chaos increased, and he had spent many nights having the children crawl over him, or curl up against him. Like now.

Given that Astrid and Hiccup had had five children reach adulthood, not to mention all the children _their_ children had, he'd gotten long used to the sibling quarrels. He could tell the difference between a fight that was in a way affectionate, and the ones that would draw blood. He'd learned to tune it out, or to use his tail to good effect in separating them. It was hard, even for Viking children at their brattiest, to fight when one of them had been picked up and now dangled a few feet above the other. He kept that in mind should the other sibling, the female one (didn't humans have a word for that?), approach again in such a hostile way.

It was still nice to have several siblings curled against him again. Even with the idiot humans surrounding him, he felt calm.

-xXx-

Mike had figured it would take, oh, a max of five minutes for _somebody_ to notice there were now two humans leaning against the dragon rather than one. He checked his watch again. Yeah, heading on towards fifteen had definitely not been planned.

However, he hadn't taken into account how utterly insane things had gotten while he was talking to Drew, hidden away by Toothless' wings.

First off, the woman who had started yelling at the rangers for bringing out deadly weaponry had apparently resorted to physical violence. There was a fight going on to left of them, which had spread, dragging in the woman's colleagues and other park service personnel who had been trying to break it up. Somebody must've called the state troopers, because one of their squad cars had more or less bullied its way through the crush of news crew vans, and one of the officers was trying to get everybody calmed down, though apparently he'd threatened to smack one of the reporters if they didn't back up, and get out of the way. Which had caused _somebody_ in the crowd to scream "Police brutality!" Which certainly hadn't helped much.

Secondly, with the park service people tied up with that fight, and the news crews, they'd lost control of the gates, and more people had come into the park. It was rather amazing, Mike hadn't believed that there were actually people who dressed like stereotypical hippies , yet here they were. Most were claiming that a person riding a dragon was a sign. A sign of _what_ they couldn't quite agree on. End of the world, beginning of a new one, something prophetic anyways, and they had their copy of the be-all end-all of Nostradamus' prophecies and that proved it! It was the beginning of an age, not that they were exactly eager to label said age, since people tended to laugh at one when you began to babble about The Age of Aquarius. One very loud guy was shouting that this was proof of the Military Industrial complex doing experiments to make a human-dragon hybrid super soldier. Another loud woman was shouting something about aliens. Each group had some of the news crews filming whatever they were yelling about, though it mostly seemed to be the crews who were too far away to get footage of the now three-way brawl between the park service crew, the researchers, and the state police.

Mike had elbowed Drew sharply when he'd suggested they do some jumping jacks to drag people's attention back to the freakin' dragon. Who was lying there quite calmly actually. If anything, Toothless seemed fascinated by the display of lunacy in front of them. The large fins on top of his head were up as he cocked his head back and forth, studying the humans. He kept twisting his head back and forth to keep up with all that was going on, but since all of the humans surrounding them seemed more interested in each other than them, he seemed calm as well.

"Y'know, I wish I had my camera," Drew commented. "I'd take a picture of all that," he waved at the crowds, "and upload it to Wikipedia or Urban Dictionary or something as a visual representation of the phrase 'clusterfuck'."

Toothless snorted, his fins going down as one voice yelled loud enough to be heard over everything, before shaking his head.

"See? Your dragon agrees with me." Drew added, grinning at Mike.

Mike rolled his eyes before trying to kick Drew in the ankle. Since they were both sitting next to each other with their legs stretched out in front of them, and Drew had the stupidly long legs from mom's side of the family, it was more of a kick to the shin. Drew simply snorted and ruffled his hair, much to his annoyance.

"I swear, if I wanted to I could fly off right now, and I don't think they'd even notice." Mike muttered in exasperation. He ran his hands through his hair, straightening what Drew had messed up.

"Try it and I'm not going to get between Ashley and you when she finally finds you."

Mike paused for a thought. "… You fight dirty." He accused his brother. "Anyway, I was just saying _if_, not that I was planning it. Its not like I have any survivalist training, and I couldn't exactly hide Toothless in a city. I don't care how much people in a big city can ignore, I just can't see them not noticing a big black dragon."

While they had been talking a cameraman in front of them had been panning around to get a shot of the whole scene when he paused, camera pointed at them. He lowered it, still staring at the two of them. Drew waved, elbowing Mike to do the same. The man stared at them, his jaw dropping. The cameraman then turned around, obviously looking for someone. He apparently found who he was looking for, poking one reporter in the shoulder with a finger. The reporter was towards the back of the crowd around the fight, looking like he wanted to get closer to see what was happening, but turned when his camera guy jabbed harder at him. The camera guy jerked his finger towards them, causing the reporter to turn to see, and then stare at them as well. Mike had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at both guys dumbfounded expressions. The pair then cautiously approached.

Toothless' head swiveled to stare directly at them, and he bared his teeth apparently when he felt they were close enough. Prudently, both men stopped.

"Hi, I'm David Melchamp, on-the-scene reporter for WKTU…" The man started a patter before trailing off. "How the hel- ah, heck did you get so close?" He asked, staring straight at Drew.

"I walked." Drew replied, keeping his face completely straight.

Mike rolled his eyes, hard, before shoving at his brother, who started laughing. Toothless glanced at the pair of them and huffed, almost sounding as exasperated as Mike felt.

"Dad's right, you're going to be doing push-ups every five minutes at the academy for your smart mouth." Mike told him.

"Really all I did was come up to my brother here without swinging a weapon, or trying to grab him. I did smack him once in the arm, but as much trouble as he's caused I figured he'd earned it." Drew replied, a bit more seriously once he'd stopped snickering.

"And why did you attempt to approach the dragon, despite the rangers warning everybody to stay away from such a dangerous animal?" The reporter asked. He looked like he wanted to asked Mike questions, but was too unnerved by Toothless' stare to try. He was also trying to stay professional, but kept twitching at every movement Toothless made. Mike could almost swear the dragon was treating it as a game. He would hold still for a while, only to suddenly flick his tail, causing the reporter to jump or flinch.

Drew shrugged. "Because he's my brother. He may or may not be crazy, the jury's still out on that one," Mike punched him in the arm, "but he's not suicidal. And the dragon didn't actually hurt anybody here, only protected the brat here. I figured with all of the screaming and shouting going on, somebody ought to at least try talking."

Having asked some questions, and not been eaten by the dragon seemed to give David a bit more bravery, though he still jumped about a foot in the air when Toothless' tail flicked lightly against his ankle. He still turned towards Mike, intent on asking him some questions as well. Mike noticed that their little group had actually attracted attention from the other reporters hovering around, mostly the ones who were too far away from the action going on around them to get good footage and had actually noticed what was going on. They all stopped at the point that made Toothless growl, but were getting braver, like David, since the dragon was still lying down, rather than clawing the earth snapping and snarling. Toothless was actually looking somewhat cute, the fins on his head were up, and he tilted his head as he watched the crews point the cameras at them.

Mike was actually able to field most of the questions tossed at him relatively easily. Telling the story to Drew first had helped organize it in his mind, making it easier to answer. Most of the reporters were fairly polite about asking questions, Toothless just had to drop the fins on his head slightly and peel a lip back and all of a sudden manners came out in full force. Which was an immense improvement according to Drew. He actually muttered a comment to Mike, during one of the pauses as all of the reporters thought up another question, saying it would be no big loss if Toothless ate a couple of the more obnoxious ones. He would be more than happy to point them out, of course.

Eventually the park people managed to get things sorted out from the chaos, only to notice the relaxed Night Fury surrounded by reporters, though they kept their distance, with two young men leaning against it. This time, given that many people, civilian people, were surrounding the dragon, they approached a lot more carefully. After staring stupidly at the scene for a moment.

Toothless noticed them first, rolling swiftly to his feet, ducking his head down and snarling, scaring the crap out of an inoffensive woman reporter who had come the closest in order to ask Mike a bit more about his flight(s).

"Easy, Toothless," Mike murmured, noticing the rangers were coming to them openly, with their hands held out to show they didn't have anything. "See? I told you if you didn't attack, neither would he." Mike called to them.

"Kid, I've seen that dragon toss people a good twenty feet with that tail of his. And that was before he got cranky. Excuse me for assuming the worst." The man that spoke sounded familiar to Mike. It took him a moment to place him as the man who had talked to him at the cliff-side. He really hadn't gotten a good look at him between the twilight under the trees and clouds, and the whole being thrown to the ground and all hell breaking loose part. It hadn't really been a good time for introductions.

Mike absently petted Toothless' head, which was pressed against his middle as the dragon watched the rangers come close. He felt the faint vibration from the dragon, showing that even if he hasn't snarling, he still wasn't happy about the other humans. "Now will you listen?" He asked hopefully, praying Toothless would stay calm.

The man sighed, glancing to the side , apparently reassuring the several people who had followed him, and they backed off a bit. "I can't see how we have much of a choice. Unless you leave the dragon, he doesn't seem to want to leave you." He shook his head. "Damnedest thing I've ever seen. I've tracked that dragon down for the check-ups the past three times, and I've never seen Loki act like this before." He finally had come close enough that Toothless had peeled himself away from Mike and Drew to sniff at the man. His wedge shaped head swung up and down, and he narrowed his eyes, but seemed satisfied, before immediately turning around and curling around Mike, a deep rumbling coming from his chest as he leaned into Mike. Drew stumbled slightly, having been shoved a bit by the dragon as he'd returned to Mike. "Nope, never seen _any_ dragon act like this."

"Is my mom okay?" Mike asked, quietly, the worry having been pushed back but still there in the back of his head. "Do you think we can go see her? Without causing chaos," he peered around the man, seeing the park service people corralling all of the people who had gotten in, "or at least not add to it?"

The man stared at him a long while before throwing his hands in the air. "Sure, fine, why not? It's only a creature I've seen attack a number of my people, what could go wrong?" He gave Mike a dark look, "I will warn you, if Loki goes after anybody, we will have to take steps." His voice had deepened as he gave the warning, and Toothless bared his teeth in response.

Mike rolled his eyes. "He's not dangerous." He felt like he'd been saying that for ages already. He walked forward, feeling Toothless matter-of-factly fall in beside him. The man backed off as they walked forward, before shaking his head again muttering something under his breath and staying to the side as they walked. Mike knew, somewhere deep within him, the part that had settled into him when he had flown, that Toothless wouldn't harm anyone, unless they tried to hurt him first. And Toothless did behave. Mostly. Okay, so he flicked his tail the way he had at the reporter at a knot of rangers they passed who were talking, but they only jumped. Toothless' hadn't even actually hit any of them. The ranger gave them a narrow glance, but Toothless only looked over mildly at him. Drew walked ahead, taking the lead since Mike wasn't exactly sure where their parents were.

"The name's Aaron Mitchell." The man said, keeping a careful eye on the dragon staying between him and Mike. "Since I never introduced myself before."

"Nice to meet you." Mike replied absently, keeping an eye on Drew. The crowds may have pulled quickly away once they realized the dragon was heading towards them, but they kept swirling around Drew. "Excuse me for not shaking your hand."

The man snorted. "Like the dragon would let me get that close."

They were met by Ashley, who saw Drew first through the crowd. Apparently the brawl had gotten near the canopy where their parents were. Ashley was still clutching a hefty sized branch she'd found, god only knew where, her hair was falling down around her face, and several scratch marks on her arms. She looked straight at Drew. "You call that dealing with it?" She then seemed to notice the way the crowd was parting, spotting Mike and staring straight at him. Mike found himself flinching. Roaring dragon? Fine, no problem. Furious sister? Run away! Run away! He hadn't seen her this pissed since, well, the last time he'd upset mom badly.

Fortunately she dropped the branch. Granted that was probably because she was making motions to strangle him. She'd gotten fairly close before a black blur shot between them. It resolved into Toothless' tail, which was gently resting against Ashley's chest. Mike went pale, remembering how the Night Fury ad flung that one ranger when they'd been attacked at the cliff side, and what Ranger Mitchell had said, but the dragon merely used it to push the stunned girl away. Toothless then reared back, dipping his head down and picked Mike up, rather uncomfortably by his shirt. Even though he could feel the dragon had retracted his teeth, the shirt ripped a little, and strangled him slightly, before Toothless set him down a little further from Ashley. The dragon then landed back on his forelegs.

Ashley swayed slightly as Toothless shifted, removing his tail from where it had rested against her and turning to lean lightly against Mike. The dragon looked at both of them and snorted, shaking his head, before settling.

"Did your dragon just tell us to knock it off?" She managed dazedly.

"Uh…" Mike replied, thanking whoever was listening that Toothless hadn't killed his sister. Yeah, they didn't always get along, but still… "I think so?"

"Oh, thank god. Some being exists that can keep you two from killing each other. Maybe when I get leave I'll be able to come home to visit without seeing bloodshed." Drew said, obviously not hiding his amusement.

Given that Ashley was farther away, and Toothless had set him down right next to Drew, Mike was the one to stomp on his brother's foot.

"Mikey?" Mike looked over to see his mom, definitely pale as she stared in horror at Toothless standing right next to him. His dad's hand was obviously reaching for a weapon, as though he was on a mission during deployment. "Wha… How… Mikey, what is that doing here?" She asked faintly.

"Mom, really it's okay. He's not going to hurt you. Or the retard here." Well, that was Drew's attempt at being helpful. Could've been better. But he did step over next to Toothless and placed a hand on the dragon. Toothless glanced at him quickly, but relaxed once he recognized the human next to him.

Mike saw his mother's eyes widen at seeing both of her boys next to the dragon. But she seemed a bit steadier. Or so far into shock she wasn't really focused on what was happening.

Mike stepped forward, drawing both of his parent's attention. "I suppose I better start at the beginning…"

.

.

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A/N: Well, since I made everybody wait so long for the last update, I challenged myself to put out a chapter before I started my new job. I hope you like this bit.

BTW, saw Rango today (Spoilers?) . The way I would describe it is "Support Your Local Sherriff" meets "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." At least I think the writers did the entire list of recreational pharmaceuticals from the first paragraph of the Fear and Loathing book while writing the script for Rango. I mean it was pretty good, then it got to the point of the moles riding bats for an aerial attack with Ride of the Valkyries as background music, with the bats exploding into fireballs when they hit the rocks, and yeah... I knew then the writers were not just relying on dime bags. It's a decent movie though. I might try watching it drunk the next time.


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer:Not mine, never will be

His parents listened as intently as Drew had. He managed to tune out Ashley's sarcastic comments about his intelligence, sanity, and high probability of being adopted. When he described searching through the barn looking for parts he heard one of the park service people curse and mutter something along the lines of "If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. We need to clean out that firetrap!" With unenthusiastic agreement from others surrounding them. He was deliberately vague on where the designs came from, improvising something about finding a sort-of kind-of thingamajig online he modified (the Internet! It has everything!), and hoped he could sound a little more coherent if somebody pestered him on that point later. Drew at least seemed happier with the parts he left out. Of course, by the end everybody still gave him the "We're dealing with a lunatic"-look.

They had moved inside the ranger station before having this talk, mostly to keep the reporters at bay a little. Since Toothless hadn't taken a limb off anyone, yet, they'd regained their courage and even now were practically plastered against the sides of the building. Ranger Mitchell had seemed absolutely flabbergasted when Toothless had walked in the building quite calmly next to Mike. Mike wasn't sure why that, of all things, seemed to break the guy's mind the most, but figured he had enough on his plate to worry about and pushed it to the back of his mind. Toothless had laid down in a huff once inside, flicking his tail fin over his face. Even as Mike had talked, mostly standing by the dragon, the rest of the people in the room had tried to keep their distance from the dark lump. Which wasn't easy. Night Furies weren't the largest breed by any reckoning, but they weren't small either. A freakin' Clydesdale would've fit better into the room. And not have unnerved as many people each time it twitched.

His story hadn't settled anything either. There were the dozens of questions, from his parents, the park people, the researchers who hadn't gotten into the fight and had somehow slipped in here, everybody and anybody. The first and to Mike's mind the most important, where was Mike going to stay?

His Mom was adamant that he was returning to California with them. She had her heels dug in on that point with his Dad firmly on her side.

"Ma'am, I hate to point this out," this was the park superintendent, Paul Macklin, who was warily watching Toothless as he spoke. "But we've never seen a dragon act this way before. We're kind of walking blind in what Loki may or may not do. He seems calm now, but I don't know how he would react to you trying to take your son away. I know he reacted badly to my own people trying to separate them. Assuming you could grab your son and get out of here, the only thing really keeping the dragon here is the fact that food is plentiful here. Do you really want to hear on the news about this dragon wandering around, or worse, showing up in your backyard one morning?"

Toothless looked up from where he was laying on the floor, yawning widely and showing every one of his teeth. "Stop it." Mike murmured to the dragon as he shoved him slightly, noticing how everybody in the room froze at the dragon's movement. Toothless simply snorted, nudging him back with his head.

"I can't imagine that animal following us on an airplane." His mom replied stiffly. "Why what's your idea? My husband has his duty on his base, and I have a job back in California. This was meant as a vacation, not a reason to move!"

"Couldn't I stay here?" Mike asked. He'd sat down next to Toothless and had the dragon's head slightly crushing his lap as he petted him. "I mean, I don't want to leave Toothless, there's places to live, I could go to school and help out here. What's the problem?"

"You're only fourteen years old!" His dad jumped in. "I don't care what else is going on,but you are not an adult, four years away from being one in fact. You need supervision, especially if your idea of responsibility involves jumping off a damn cliff!"

"That _wasn't_ my idea!" Mike replied, annoyed. Toothless lifted his head again and rumbled, causing everybody but Mike to tense, and Mike to hiss at the dragon, "Not helping."

"Ah, pardon me," a man who'd been near one of the walls talking on a cell phone pressed forward. He didn't have a uniform on so Mike knew he was a park person. "Dr. Bishop, head of Draconic Studies at UCLA." He nodded at Mike's parents as he introduced himself. They nodded back, still stiff and unhappy. "You could designate a person to be a legal guardian, a loco parentis or such. I've been on the phone with several colleagues, both at UCLA and other campuses around the world, who would be thrilled to have access to the Night Fury, and are already looking into ways of securing grants for said access."

Mike's dad bristled. "You expect us to just hand our son over to you for money? What the hell do you think-"

"Well, not really your son, it just seems that in order to get close to the dragon, your son is rather necessary." Dr. Bishop's voice was calm, he wasn't a particularly tall man, and his manner was completely unthreatening. Mike wondered if the man acted the same way when near a wild dragon. "One suggestion involved a scholarship fund, in addition to room, board, and schooling to finish out his, what grades nine through twelve? Of course the scholarship could be applied to any school of your son's choice."

"But he's only fourteen, and you want me to sign him over to a stranger." His mom sounded close to wailing. "What if somebody tries to hurt him-"

Drew actually cut her off with a loud burst of laughter. "Mom, he's got a thousand pound guard dog. The only way we're going to find out if somebody tried to hurt Mike is by trying to pry the carcass out of that dragon's mouth." He shrugged. "It could be kind of like a boarding school. Lots of people send their kids off to those. Remember how you used to threaten us with military school when we'd run through the house like a bunch of vandals during summer break? I'm pretty sure as long as Mike knows his staying is conditional on his good behavior, hell I'd put money down on him being better behaved here than he's ever been at home."

Nothing was settled that night. His mom and dad still felt he was too young to stay on his own, despite Mike's willingness (which seemed to count against the idea), and the park service and researcher's offers (which he couldn't tell if they counted for or against in his parent's minds). Dr. Bishop seemed to realize that pressing now would only make both of his parents get more stubborn on the point and had backed down. There had been other arguments, but most wound up circling back to needing him to be here so others could study Toothless close up.

Toothless had finally put an end to all the arguments by standing up and stretching, which made several of the humans jump to their feet and back away. He then leaned down and nudged Mike, who had stayed sitting on the floor next to him, dozing slightly as the adults had been arguing in circles for a while. It wasn't like leaning against the dragon had been any more uncomfortable than sitting in a metal folding chair after all, and if his parents were determined to drag him home, he was going to stay as close to Toothless as he could. He stretched as well, grinning at the dragon who'd woken him before noticing his mom giving him a strange look. What? Couldn't anybody sleep next to a dragon?

They all wound up being escorted back to the cabin he and his family had been staying at for the past several weeks by a large group of the rangers, with other park service people helping to keep the press back. Unfortunately the media seemed to have lost their fear and were now shouting and snapping pictures like a bunch of paparazzi, Mike felt like he was under a microscope and pressed closer to the dragon, who seemed to completely ignore the crowds. Toothless seemed unimpressed with the small building they came to, but matter-of-factly bullied his way past Mike's parents to enter the main room of the cabin. His parents seemed in shock at that, but it wasn't like they had a chance in heck of keeping the dragon out of anywhere he wanted to go. The dragon managed to maneuver around in the way too small for him building, sticking his nose into everything. Mike looked over worriedly at his mother, whose face went tense and strained at seeing a dragon in the room, but she seemed to pull herself together before entering the cottage. His dad followed quickly after, while still keeping a wary eye on the Night Fury.

Ashley had gotten in the cottage first, before even Toothless, and Mike found himself being kicked out of the small room he'd been sharing with her and Drew. He could understand her point, he wasn't going to leave Toothless, Toothless would definitely not fit in the room with the three of them, but having to duck to the side due to having his suitcase thrown at him was a little overkill. Okay, a lot overkill as she managed a direct hit with his bag of dirty laundry right in his face. She'd then retreated behind the door with a yelp as Toothless rumbled, curling his lip at hearing Mike grunt. He'd been able to settle the dragon quickly, before anybody felt the need to bolt for the door. Drew had rolled his eyes and entered the bedroom telling Ashley to think before attacking their twerp of a brother in front of the giant carnivore who was his new bestest friend.

Mike settled on the couch, feeling surprisingly content despite nothing really being resolved. After all, his parent's hadn't grabbed him and run, Ashley hadn't killed him yet, and Toothless had been allowed inside, though to be fair he wasn't sure if that was so much an allowance as his parents being afraid to try to make the dragon stay outside. Toothless curled almost all the way around the couch, which was luckily in the middle of the main room, as he stretched out. It was rather lumpy, and had a kind of funky smell, but after spending a night on a stone floor with only a dragon for padding, it was heaven.

"Goodnight Mikey." His mom was standing in the doorway of the larger bedroom she and his dad were using. She was leaning on sill with her arms crossed, and even with most of the lights in the cabin off, he could see the worry on her face as she looked at the dragon.

"Night Mom." He cocked his head when she didn't leave. "You okay now?"

There was a faint snort that could've come from Ashley, the sheer level of sarcasm in it. Then a sigh. "It's just so much to take in. You disappearing, the dragon, worrying and wondering if you were okay, you reappearing with… Well," she gave a wave to encompass the dragon now taking up a large portion of the room, "a bit more than anyone expected. It's a lot to take in, and I just don't want to see you getting hurt."

"I'll be fine Mom." He smiled at her, not sure if she could see in the darkness. "Toothless doesn't want me getting hurt either. See? The two of you have something in common."

She smiled back, a little sadly. "We'll talk more in the morning."

-xXx-

"Oh for the love of… I thought it was bad yesterday." Drew was looking outside rather disgustedly.

"Well, some of the reporters from further away places probably couldn't get tickets to get here quicker."Ashley called from the bathroom, where she was taking way too long to "put her face on" as she called it.

Mike had been the first one up. A blunt head nudging him firmly had been hard to ignore. Knowing that Toothless hadn't eaten much the day before, he'd gotten up quickly. A very short shower and some, thankfully, fresh clothes later he and the dragon had slipped out into the pre-dawn light with the rest of his family still sleeping. He checked the harness over carefully again before getting on and patting the dragon's neck to tell him he was ready. As early as it was, most of the reporters hadn't crawled out of wherever they'd gone to bed yet, so he didn't have a crowd to watch him take off.

Toothless had decided to go fishing that morning. Mike had rather wished he'd known that beforehand as he would've worn his dirty clothes. It had been exhilarating, yes. Diving at the water as the fish jumped at dawn, feeling Toothless snap them up. Also very, very wet as the dragon's forelegs reached into the water to grab more fish, causing water to spray everywhere, before dropping them in a pile to the side of the lake and returning for another dive. It was much quicker than trying to catch them with a line though. After a few passes, the dragon settled over the pile he'd collected and quickly gulped them down, before they returned to the cabin. Mike had enough time to grab another, even faster, shower and get dressed, again, and use his towel to wipe off any remaining fish scales, guts, or other unmentionables from Toothless' muzzle before Ashley stumbled into the main room. She rubbed at her eyes before focusing on the dragon standing there and beginning to swear loudly and profusely at seeing them in the living room, causing both his Dad and brother to jerk awake and come running. Both of whom had also apparently forgotten about the dragon in the room, jerking backwards with a curse as well. His Mom joined them, only giving a sigh at seeing Toothless, who had laid back down again and was watching the humans moving around with interest.

"Why's it wearing that saddle thingy?" Ashley asked once the older members of their family had gathered to commune with the coffee maker.

"Ah, well, I figured a full dragon was a happier one," Mike began, "and I really didn't have a chance to get him fed good yesterday, plus he didn't really give me a choice what with the nudging me hard in the gut as a wake-up call, and I'm sure everybody's tempers will still be pretty strained today and a hungry irritable dragon won't help that, so I thought it would be a good thing to do today."

Ashley had stared at him as he rambled on, her face getting paler and paler. "You mean I marched up to a hungry dragon yesterday?" She eyed the dragon who was keeping to the center of the room while the humans were keeping to the walls. "Thanks I _really_ needed to know that."

Once everybody had woken up, and gotten ready for the day, Drew had been the one to look outside to see how bad the madness had become.

"Is it really that bad?" Mike asked as he walked over, Toothless following as best he could in the cabin, causing his dad to jerk backwards with a grunt in order to avoid being knocked by a wing.

"Well, it looks like they called in some kind of police, maybe the county sheriffs instead. I think there's some kind of barricades that have been put up, and they're trying to keep everybody on the other side of them, but I see way more of the lunatic group today. Remember all the shouting crazies yesterday?" He grimaced as he looked at the rest of the family. "I think they bred."

Much to his family's obvious relief, Toothless was the first out the door. On the plus side, the dragon drew most of the attention from the people scurrying along behind. On the downside, _most_ of the attention wasn't _all_ the attention. Mike heard people yelling all kinds of things. Mostly wanting quotes from him, others accusing his parents of child abuse (physical and otherwise), some asking him when he started using drugs (and where had _that_ come from?), some wanting to know what god/demon/other-worship he had taken up for him to be able to control a dragon and would he teach them? (_Seriously?)_ Yells, and shouts, and screams So much shouting that it practically was a physical force beating down on him. He didn't realize how upset he was getting, until he felt Toothless beside him start to tense. One of the reporters hung over the barricade to shout something, that between the distance and the loudness he didn't have a chance at understanding, but the man's attempt to get closer caused Toothless to let out a loud snarl and partly unfurl his wings.

Mike wasn't exactly happy about that, as seeing the dragon respond had made several rangers very noticeably reach for weapons all of them were carrying, but it quieted the crowd a bit. Apparently the fools forgot they were making a racket around a creature that was _not_ really tamed, was walking unrestrained and was quite capable of doing a great deal of damage if he so chose before anybody could stop him. It wasn't that the crowd went silent, just that it became a dull roar instead of a cacophony.

Finally they made it back to the visitors center. Somebody had been busy, most of the displays that could be moved had been shoved up against the walls, creating a space that was far less crowded even with a dragon taking up a lion's share in the middle. Another thing was a table that had been set up along one of the walls that had breakfast rolls, fruit, and the like on it. While _Toothless_ had been taken care of, Mike realized he was starving and made a beeline for the table, snagging a ridiculously huge, sticky, cinnamon roll for himself before settling, like yesterday, next to the dragon.

The same people were here today, and they didn't seem to know what to do with him or Toothless any more than they had yesterday. There was one difference though, his Mom was looking at him oddly. Not with extreme worry and fear like before. Instead she seemed to be studying him where he sat next to the dragon with a contemplative look. She then turned away to talk to his Dad who gave him a sharp glance at whatever she had said. Good? Bad? Who knew?

-xXx-

"There's just something wrong with that creature," Aaron remarked as he leaned against the wall of the visitor's center. He was staying outside, watching the crowd warily. He'd seen some strange and stupid things people had done as a ranger, but these past few days had been something else.

The girl next to him, who had just fended off some of the more persistent reports from getting inside, looked over at him. "Why do you say that?" She moved to block another person from getting inside with a glare. "I mean other than the fact that the most reclusive dragon in the park is now following a kid around like he's his momma."

Aaron sighed and nodded towards where they could see the dragon through a window, curled in the middle of the visitor's center. "How did the dragon enter that building?"

The girl, Addie he thought, he remembered seeing her around this summer, frowned. She looked puzzled. "He walked in. What's wrong with that?"

"Let's start with everything, and work our way from that?" Aaron said shortly. "Normally a dragon is very cautious about entering anywhere where they can't spread their wings and take off. They seem to know they're more vulnerable on the ground, and are on guard when they enter any confined space, assuming there might be something that would attack them. Even Slitherfangs, with the narrow entrances to their warrens, always have at least one of the flock inside, and have been seen calling to that one at the entrances before entering, to know it's safe." He ran his hand through thinning hair, before pulling at it slightly. "I expected Loki to balk, hiss, maybe even retreat. At least tense a little. Instead he walks through narrow doorways like he's been doing it all his life!"

Addie nodded slowly. "Okay, I can see how that would stick out. I mean, does any other dragon behave like that?"

"Only Beneficence will enter any man-made structure, but he's been living around humans his entire life. Centuries if the records we have from China are correct. And there's no such records at all about Loki!" Now the aggravation in the man's voice became more obvious. "The earliest records of him are from the indigenous tribes of Newfoundland, and he certainly wasn't mentioned as living with them, either in written or oral history. It's like we're dealing with an entirely different dragon that the one I tracked down a little over a year ago."

Several of the reporters had gathered closer to them, having given up on listening in on the meeting with the Park Superintendent and the boy's family.

"According to the old Loki, the dragon I've tracked down for his five year inspections the past three times, the crap that kid has pulled; patting him, scratching him, hell climbing all over him, would've lost him fingers, if not limbs. And the kid doesn't even seem to understand why I've been tense near the beast. It's like he looks at Loki and sees a damn cuddly lab puppy, instead of a giant, vicious predator."

"I mean no harm to the kid, he seems nice enough, if naive, but I was expecting an injured if not dead body, not some cocky snot of a teenager telling me not to worry before flying off on the back of an extremely dangerous dragon who'd just attacked us." Aaron rubbed the bridge of his nose, settling down as if the rant had allowed him release some stress. "I'm just nervous, which makes me irritable. I had a pretty good ability to read Loki. Had an idea of what he'd do in certain situations. I have absolutely no idea what this 'Toothless' might or might not do."

-xXx-

Mike was stupefied. He wasn't sure when, how, or even _why_, but his Mom seemed to be on his side now. Not in an obvious "Here's our kid, look after him, see ya"-kind of way, but her questions were more on exactly what the park had in mind for taking care of him. Where would he live, what precautions for his safety would there be? What kind of schooling was available in the area? It was a major departure from just last night, when she'd seemed to want to grab him and book it out of the state.

He'd finished his roll, offering the last sticky bit to Toothless who'd sniffed at it suspiciously before licking it from his hand, teeth retracted. Mike had then started sniggering at the gagging noise the dragon made as Toothless shook his head and snorted. He got a flat look from the dragon whose fins about his head were pressed hard against his body, as the dragon gave one final cough.

"What? Don't like sweet stuff? Consider it payback for the raw fish." Mike said grinning, before looking around at the rest of the adults in the room.

The researchers were all gathered in one corner, with their mouths hanging open. Mike wondered why, before realizing he didn't remember telling them that Toothless could retract his teeth. Offering the dragon fish yes, eating the regurgitated fish, yes. Retractable teeth, oops, forgot about that tidbit. It was apparently as startling to them as it had been to him. Once they got over their shock he heard one of them announce "We have _got_ to find some way of talking them into letting the kid stay!"

Fortunately nobody was talking about any punishment for Mike's actions. Apparently there wasn't anything really specified about interactions with the dragons of the park, except against harming them. It was generally assumed anybody stupid enough to go poking a dragon would get what was coming to them, long before any human intervention was possible. Since Toothless was obviously not harmed, instead seemed to be doing wonderfully, there wasn't any reason to go after Mike or his family. Not to mention the various researchers would've had a collective apoplexy if they'd tried.

"So you're saying you'd build a new place as a home for Mike. And since he'd be helping with the research team that would be assembled, it could count as credit, the same as any AP class would?" His mom was standing, talking to Dr. Bishop as the man explained what he had in mind for Mike and Toothless.

"Mostly because I can't imagine the dragon fit very well into that cabin you were staying in last night," he replied. "I'm not guaranteeing the Palace at Versailles level of luxury, but I'm sure a large enough, comfortable place could be managed easily."

Mike shook his head still baffled. Why had she changed her mind?

He didn't find out until after they had a break. Toothless had gotten up and stretched, looking irritated that the room was too small for his wingspread. Everybody had been more than happy to get out of the way of the dragon as he strode out the door. While they were inside a shipment of temporary fencing had arrived, a bit more sturdy than the barricades that had been in place before, so Mike was able to get on Toothless and take off without being swarmed. He heard his dad yell something, and felt a small twinge of guilt. He knew he shouldn't have just run, well flown, off. But the sky had been calling, and Toothless was obviously having the time of his life. It felt so natural being up here, problems were left on the ground beneath them. Yesterday was over, who knew what would happen tomorrow, but now? Now was the air blowing past, the dizzy feel of weightlessness from a dive, and the rush of seeing the land beneath you fall away.

Even seeing his family's worry, and feeling the slight guilt gnaw away at him further, didn't diminish the joy he felt after the short ride. Toothless seemed better too, and Mike had noticed the dragon didn't show so many signs of pain after a flight already, and that the flights were getting a bit longer each time they went up. He'd almost say the Night Fury swaggered back, pacing proudly after their flight, head in the air. The dragon seemed to preen at the attention the media was giving, as they snapped pictures and still tried to yell questions for Mike to answer.

"Mikey? Would you come over here?" His mom called from the visitor's center. "We need to talk."

He blinked, she seemed kind of sad again and he hoped she wasn't breaking down again. "Sure mom, be right over." He picked up the pace, vaguely noticing that Toothless immediately turned to follow beside him.

He noticed that the rest of the adults, the various researchers and rangers and so forth, had left the building. His dad sighed and reached out to wrap and arm around him.

"You have to understand that we want what's best for you first off," his dad began. Mike's stomach became a hard ball of ice. He was leaving, he knew it, why did his mom act like there was ever doubt about it- "Which is why we're considering allowing you to stay. With conditions mind you." His dad's voice became stern as he looked down at Mike.

Who was, to put it mildly, reeling. Staying? Really? But how, why?

"Drew pointed out to us how happy you've been since you came here. Even I've noticed, that being here centered you, grounded you." His mom smiled wryly. "Okay, perhaps the exact opposite of grounding you. The thing is, everything I've ever done to try to bring you out, get you to participate with your peers, has failed. Yet, in only two weeks here, you've practically become a different person. Maybe it's not a socially recognized normal," she looked a little exasperated with Mike. "But after seeing how you can work with, be companionable with well, that," his mom gestured to Toothless, who hovered next to him. "I can only imagine separating the two of you would hurt you both."

She smiled sadly at him. "It feels almost like I've been taking care of you until you could come here. It's breaking my heart at the thought of leaving you here, but I'm afraid I'd break yours by making you leave."

* * *

Okay, yeah I know it's been forever ago since I updated. However once I started my new job, my muse died. I mean in a "Send flowers, the funeral's Wednesday"-type of dead. For about four months. However, as I've gotten used to my job, and the rules in it (When something blows up you're supposed to gather around the machine and say thing like "Whoa, look how high the scorch marks went!" and "Cool, I think it fused these wires to the frame!" etc.), I finally began to get back into daydreaming in the off-times. I hope the next chapter won't be as long as this one took.


	13. Chapter 12

Mike grinned as he looked around his new home. His. House. He was still kind of stunned at that, given how he was only fourteen. Granted, until his mom finished shipping his stuff to him it had less personality than a hotel room. It wasn't exactly a fancy place either, it only had three actual rooms; a bedroom, a bathroom, and one huge room that was everything else. Mostly the last was marked out by the furniture in it. Cabinets and large appliances, with a table built next to the wall? That was the kitchen. A battered cabinet from one of the cabins with an older TV on it and an equally old couch set next to it was the living room. The only other piece of furniture was a desk with a relatively new computer on it. The bedroom had even less, a bed and a chest of drawers that matched the cabinet the TV had been placed on. However, despite the lack of furniture, it was built perfectly. At least if you were taking a dragon into account. The floorspace was huge.

The house itself was partially built into a small cliffside, close enough to the visitors center he could walk there in a few minutes, but placed far enough back, and screened by trees, to hopefully keep most of the tourists away. The entire building was really two stories, and only the upper story was Mike and Toothless' new place. The lower floor had been set up as labs and other facilities for the researchers who would form the main team to study Toothless. There were no inside stairs, or ramps, or anything connecting the two areas, which Mike's mom had been the one to demand in the construction. She'd adamantly insisted that Mike's part of the building was to be his home, and not simply another place they could have easy access to study like an oversized terrarium. So the only stairs he had went down only to a utility room that was separate from the lab spaces and had the laundry machines, water heater, and a furnace squeezed into it.

The upper area had a stone floor throughout. It had costed more, but after seeing Toothless "warm-up" a bed once, everybody had agreed that it was probably the best choice. Along with a good ventilation system. The roof was built like an A-frame, steep to allow snow from the winter to slide down. There had been a few arguments over whether to create a loft area or not, but the decision had been made to leave it open as much as possible for Toothless. There were a few other things to make it easier for Mike to get a dragon in and out of the house. The main doors into the house and to his bedroom were extra wide double doors, with hinges that allowed for 180° movement, that were easily pushed to open.

Toothless had seemed happy with the house as well, scaring the crap out of Paul Macklin, the park supervisor, when he leapt up into the heavy wood beams supporting the roof. Fortunately, while dragons were large, they were far lighter than they tended to appear, and the beams only creaked slightly under the Night Fury's weight. The research team had been absolutely baffled when the dragon allowed himself to fall backwards, dangling with his tail hung over one brace, looking like a giant bat with his wings around him, before rapidly taking notes about that behavior.

There were three adults who made up the core of the research team. The more-or-less leader was David Tresand, an American who had been studying Night Furies in the wild (at least as much as possible) for over twenty years. He was a brisk, intelligent man, with far too many degrees to list, and Mike wanted desperately to smack him within about twenty minutes of meeting the man. He knew a great deal about dragons in general, and Night Furies in particular, but unless you had several PhD's and possibly a Nobel Prize, he wanted nothing to do with you. He'd quickly made it obvious that he only allowed Mike around under protest, and the fact that he couldn't get close to Toothless without the teenager being nearby.

The second was an older woman, Marit Erstad, from Norway, who had been one of the researchers who'd already been in the park when Mike had taken his first flight. She mostly studied dragon behaviorism and was ecstatic at having Toothless so close to hand to observe. She was also the researcher side of the two people who'd signed paperwork making Mike their responsibility, the other being Mr. Macklin. Mike's mother had liked Marit when she'd met her during discussions of who would be in the group, and Mike liked her as well. About the only problem with her was if you asked her a question she'd talk your ear off answering it.

The third was a biochemical engineer, Naveen Johari, who had published a number of theories and papers on draconic fire production. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to study the gases produced by a normal, wild dragon other than a few given that if they were producing it, they were likely to flame you very soon, and the various glands that they seemed to store the chemicals in were the first to decompose after death making the field a mostly theoretical one. He was very interested in finding out the exact chemical composition of Toothless' fire, especially given that Night Furies were the only documented dragon with the ability to shoot a blast that then detonated, rather than a continuous flame. Mike thought he was nice enough, but Naveen seemed far more interested in chemical composition of gases, rather than Toothless as a whole.

In addition to these three permanent members there were herds of undergraduates and graduate students attached to each. They all seemed fairly nice, though whether that was related to knowing that without him there they wouldn't be either, the fact that they actually liked him, or fear of upsetting him and thereby the large dragon following after him Mike didn't know. He supposed it didn't really matter. He _had_ overheard one of them comment "Lucky bastard," after he slid off of Toothless after a flight, but the tone had been one of amazement and envy, rather than hostility.

"C'mon, time to be poked and prodded." He told Toothless. The dragon, who'd been resting beside him gave a sigh, before getting to his feet. Toothless certainly didn't like being studied. However, Mike had worked it out so they could go flying for as long as the dragon wanted after the examination, and it had only taken a couple of days for Toothless to realize that. So while the dragon grumbled and muttered, or at least that's what it sounded like, he followed Mike to the lab.

Mike's day started pretty early. Just about the crack of dawn most days. He tended to wake up when Toothless did. Or he suffered the consequences. Such as a dragon using his snout to roll him right out of the nice comfy bed, onto the cold hard (stone!) floor, and then stare at him until Mike got with the program and untangled himself from the covers. Toothless generally woke at the same time every morning, which was fortunate since Mike didn't have an alarm clock. Or rather, since he didn't have an alarm clock _anymore_. There was now a scorch mark on the wall where a clock radio had been placed. Night Furies apparently didn't take well to being startled awake by rock music early in the morning.

After Mike had managed to either shove Toothless away before he hit the floor, or fought his way out of the sheets afterwards, he generally threw on clothes from the day before, before taking Toothless out for a flight first thing. The dragon didn't eat everyday if he'd had a large meal the previous day, then the morning flight was usually just for pleasure, but if he was hungry then it was the hunting time. Normally it was fish, which was why Mike never bothered with clean clothes, though sometimes the dragon went after deer. While Mike had no problems with fish, he'd been sick after watching Toothless devour a deer the first time. It wasn't that he was a city-kid who had no idea where steak came from, and thought all meat just appeared cut up in packages… But a butcher shop was a far cry from seeing a dragon disembowel a creature right in front of you, and then start eating while it was still twitching. Animal Planet just didn't prepare a person for that.

After either Toothless fed himself, or simply spent time doing acrobatics (which, to Mike's glee, were getting more and more involved everyday), they would return to the cabin. Mike would get ready for the day, while Toothless either snoozed inside beside him, or outside of the cabin by the cliff, which caught the sun for a long while. Meanwhile Mike dealt with his school work.

His mother had been very worried about making sure he had a decent schooling and finished high school. Mike had wandered over while she had been having a conversation about it with Dr. Bishop and Paul.

"I want to make sure it's a good school, but how many are within driving distance, and would any of those have buses that would make a special stop to pick Mike up?" He'd overheard his mom asking.

"There's several schools around, but as you can imagine, it would limit the hours the team could work with the dragon, not just the schooling mind you, but the transit time as well," Paul had stated.

"What do you mean transit time?" Mike had asked, jumping into the conversation. "I mean, me and Toothless could be anywhere really quick. He's flying further everyday and getting faster. I mean that would be… So… Cool…" He trailed off under the stares of the three adults.

"Dr. Bishop, you were mentioning several online courses I believe?" His mom asked, still staring evenly at Mike.

"Yeeessss…" Dr. Bishop stretched out the word. "I think that might be best under the circumstances. I can get you the websites for several that have a good reputation."

So he wound up with online schooling. It wasn't too bad. He'd never been Mr. Popular with his peers anyway, so he didn't really miss going to a brick and mortar school. Being able to stay with his dragon was far better than having to deal with other kids. He was doing pretty good in his classes so far, though granted they'd only started a week before.

Once he finished his schoolwork, he and Toothless would go down to the labs to let the scientist poke and prod at the dragon, then the two would fly for as long as they could into the evening, before he fell asleep exhausted. Their time in the air had increased dramatically since Mike had first gotten on the dragon's back. In fact he'd been found by Dr. Erstad shortly after the team had been finalized, after a flight, whimpering slightly because his legs hurt so bad. She'd clucked her tongue and had asked him if he walked around after a long flight. When he'd admitted to just tiredly collapsing into a chair she had arched an eyebrow at him.

"You have ridden, not dragons, but horses before, correct?" She had asked.

"Um… Once or twice as part of a day camp…" Mike had answered.

"And I can guess you were sore then?" Marit continued doggedly. "Despite it being a much shorter ride than you are doing now?"

"Well yeah, but Toothless was acting sore before, and now he's doing better, but I'm still stiff and-" He stopped at the look of amusement directed at him.

"Dragons heal quickly, you know that, yes?" Mike nodded sourly. "Despite your closeness to the Night Fury, I have yet to see you grow scales and fangs." She smiled. "Why are you surprised it's taking you longer to adjust? I'll send one of my students to pick you up some liniment or that Tiger Balm stuff. I'd suggest you rub it into your legs. And in the future do some stretches before your flight and walk around afterwards to avoid becoming stiff."

-xXx-

"It makes no damn sense!"

Mike jerked in surprise at the shout. He'd been zoning out a bit as Dr. Tresand had been inspecting Toothless. Since the man generally ignored him he always asked Dr. Erstad what David had learned. Dr. Tresand at the moment was ranting about how _something_ he'd found didn't make sense, and it seemed to personally offend him. He wound up walking off, snarling at one grad student who didn't get out of his way in time.

Mike sidled over to Marit, who was rolling her eyes at her colleague's actions. He stopped by Toothless' head, petting the dragon who was obviously tense from having a human yell right next to him. Mike was grateful the dragon hadn't decided to snap at the idiot, however much he would've enjoyed seeing it.

"What crawled up his butt and died?" He muttered, rubbing at the Night Fury's softer scales under his jaw, until the dragon was purring happily again.

Marit arched an eyebrow at his language. "He is just rather irritated at realizing that previous researchers' data has been confirmed as to how old both the dragon, and the injury, are." She ran a hand along Toothless' tail, opposite his remaining fin.

Mike frowned. "What about that would make him so upset?"

"How much do you know about a dragon's instincts and hunting patterns?" She asked.

"Not much." Mike shrugged.

"Young dragons hunt the way they are taught by their parents, or completely by instinct for those who are abandoned after the eggs are laid. They aren't very adaptable, sticking to tried and true methods. As dragons age, they begin to try new things, likely because they have gotten good enough at hunting to not be on the edge of starvation if they miss a meal. This might be why most legends and tales talk of canny or clever dragons. The older they are, the more experiences they have to draw from, the more adaptable they'd be. Likely if a dragon was older when he decided to enter a human area and hunt, the harder he would be to track and hunt." She explained.

"Huh... Okay," Mike replied.

"This here is why he is so upset." Marit then pointed to two lines on the bare side of the tail. "See those lines? They are ridges down the center of that row of scales." Mike walked over next to her and crouched down to see clearly. He nodded to show he could see, he hadn't really paid much attention to them when he had been making the false tail, as he had noticed other faint scars on the dragon's body as well and had dismissed it. Marit continued, "that is a sign of severe trauma. When the fin on this side was sheared off the scales began to grow quickly to cover it."

Toothless had curled up, causing both humans to move, as he shifted to keep an eye on the humans messing with his tail. Marit froze, lifting her hand from where it had been resting on the dragon's tail, before averting her eyes and leaving her hand still outstretched towards the dragon. Toothless merely sniffed at it before snorting and turning his head to Mike for a scratch. Marit's shoulders slumped and Mike felt kind of sad for her. While Toothless would tolerate the researchers touching him, he hadn't initiated any contact with them the way he casually did with Mike. Neither David nor Naveem seemed to care, but Marit tried nearly everyday to get the Night Fury to touch her.

She only sighed at seeing the dragon turn away and went back to her explanation. "You see how the ridge is near the center of the scale? That means that even after it dealt with the trauma it continued to grow. Now Night Furies haven't been found shedding scales, unless they've been severely damaged. Instead, from what we can tell, they form tiny scales along the edge of mature ones, which then grow larger as well. In fact we are documenting several scale chains that have formed along Toothless' shoulders. Likely from building muscle from flying, thereby needing space to grow."

She then pointed to the space between the two lines. "How far apart would you say that is?"

"Ummm… Three, four inches or so?" Mike hazarded.

Marit nodded. "Now the oldest Night Fury ever found was a corpse recovered from Iceland's Vatnajökull glacier. That one was measured at about ten feet longer that your friend here. Carbon dating had that one's bones at three to four thousand years old. Now if we take that as the equivalent of a truly ancient, 110 year old human, Toothless here would be in the prime of his life, around early to mid thirties. The large spacing, given that records from this park show how slowly this dragon grows, for that area shows that this happened sometime when he was just reaching his adult size. Possibly when he was still an adolescent."

"Now other dragons have been discovered injured when young, but all of them either were recorded as having pined or starved to death if the injury made them incapable of flight. One of my own teachers once had a person inform them of a dragon that had been downed after a bad storm and was trapped in a valley out in the wilds of Norway, north of Grong. It had had its wing badly wrenched and torn. He had the townsfolk feed it, but it simply refused the food. Within the few days it took him to get to the valley it had died. Some have been observed recovering if the injury was only to a limb or body, but until this Night Fury no young dragon has been found alive after losing their flight."

"We are just completely baffled as to why he survived when no others have."

-xXx-

Mike pushed the door open to the lab, blinking at the empty room. Normally when the two of them arrived, students were running around setting up whatever test they were going to do, Dr.s Tresand, Erstad, and Johari would usually be discussing the order the tests would be done in, and Toothless would balk at the chaos. Instead, the silence was broken by one young woman shuffling paper on one desk in the corner. Toothless poked his head in through the door, his bulk shoving Mike inside, obviously puzzled by the quiet as well. He warbled lowly, cocking his head.

The young woman's head popped up from behind a stack of folders and paper. "Aw, hell. Didn't they tell you?" She looked exasperated.

"Tell me what?" Mike asked confused.

The woman rolled her eyes. "Of course not. Why would anybody actually inform the reason we're all here that their presence wasn't needed? That would require planning!" She threw her hands in the air. Mike edged closer to the door.

"Sorry," she smiled. "I get a bit irked at the lackadasical planning around here. Anyways, Dr. Tresand went down to Boulder for some kind of video conference. The internet out here isn't that great, and trying a live video feed just about killed it. Dr. Johari had some samples he was taking to Denver to the university, and Dr. Erstad went with him to pick up a book she had shipped to her. So I'm taking this blessed, unexpected, downtime to try to organize the chaos the three of them have already managed to generate." She smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh, right. Hey I'm Denise, Denise Benelton, grad student majoring in Comparative Mythological Realism in Draconic Studies." She waved a hand at him. "One of the many grad students you've been tripping over in here. I think the rest of the pack went into town."

Mike nodded to her, patting Toothless who was using the lack of people in the room to his advantage in exploring it. The dragon had been shooed away from all the strange things when the other humans were there. "Nice to meet you," Mike replied. "It seems like number of people here multiplies every other day."

"I can only imagine. I mean, it's pretty easy for us. 'Look for the kid with the dragon, that's Mike,' but all of us probably blend together." She then grinned, "and just think, since most of us are here just for a semester, in a few months you get to try and learn all the names all over again."

"Oh, great. I'm never going to be able to keep track- hey! Leave that alone!" Mike yelped, grabbing at a computer screen Toothless had been inspecting, and had almost shoved off the desk. He pushed the rescued screen towards the middle of the desk, scowling at the Night Fury who ignored him in favor of some boxes that had been used to ship stuff here. Fortunately they were empty, so Mike wasn't too concerned with what the dragon did to them.

"So what is it you're here for?" He asked absently.

"Well, my job is to try and keep Dr. Erstad's notes more or less organized and filed. I'm kind of a Type-A, super organized OCD person. Which is good since she seems to ascribe to the 'It's in a drawer, therefore it's filed' method. My doctoral supervisor swore that I'd go blind if I spent any more time deciphering old manuscripts, so he set this up as a 'in field' assignment, since Dr. Erstad is an old friend of his. Speaking of, my doctoral thesis is based on decoding from the old transcripts of the Drakkon Sagas what kind of dragons were actually around back then."

"Why would you have to decode them? I mean if you have written stories…" Mike was confused.

Denise snorted. "That's why most are classified as myths. A number of dragon species went extinct in Europe between the end of the Roman times and the end of theMiddle Ages. While there are stories, the ones from the northern, Nordic tribes are second hand at best. Most were collected several centuries after the Viking Ages ended, and those are the ones I'm focusing on. Most of the Drakkon sagas are skaldic verse, and the skalds had a tendency to do a whole lot of embellishment. There's a running joke in academica that whenever a hero killed a dragon for a village, it grew a foot in length for every mile he travelled from the killing place, and added another dragon for each village he might pass through. So you have sagas about so-and-so who slew fifty Deadly Nadders that were each three hundred feet long, laying waste to villages far and near, when in reality it likely was more along the lines of one half-grown Nadder pestering a farmer's flock of sheep."

"Now why would she put the 24th, the 8th and the 12th in one folder?" She muttered, still sorting the stack of papers in front of her. "Hmmm. They all mention something about the scales, but one is about growth, another about hardness, and the third about color. Maybe I'll sort by chronological, and then go back and separate into catagories. Anyway, as I was saying, some of them went really overboard," Denise continued. "There was one that if I translated it right, the scribe was using words that would mean a dragon that was the size of a mountain, and outweighed a blue whale."

Mike snickered. "Overboard, no kidding."

She nodded, before looking thoughtful. "Funny that I thought of that one. There's a line in it that more or less translates as 'The Hero rode on the Darkest Night, to Kill the Mountain King.' It was used by one of my professors to warn about transcription errors, since it's assumed the original scribe was writing down an oral history. Whoever wrote one of the earlier copies used a lot of dramatic descriptions, and consensus holds that it was meant to describe a black horse, but the word used for 'Night' had the accents that were used in Old Norse for, well, the runes for Night Fury. Or as my professor put it, 'Night as in Dark, not Night as in Dragon."

Mike stood there startled, as Denise went back to muttering and sorting pages. He wasn't sure how long he was standing there like a twit, when Toothless rubbed against him, and almost knocked him over. He then had to reassure the dragon that no, he wasn't hurt, just thinking. It was just the idea of a story that mentioned a Night Fury being ridden threw him a bit for a loop, even if it was only by accident. He could easily understand why academics would assume it was a typo and not truth… But the way Toothless had reacted to everything. The dragon hadn't even twitched at any of the stuff he'd put on him. Not the tail, not the saddle, which had always bothered him a bit in the back of his mind. The complete acceptance of such things by a wild creature was just another bit that didn't fit.

"How old was that story? The one with the night error?" Mike asked distantly.

"Hmm?" Denise put down a sheaf she'd been flipping through. "Hard to tell really. The manuscript I was working with was a copy, of a copy, of more than likely an old oral history. As I said before, most of the sagas were collected much later than the time the stories actually originated. A number were finally written down in the 1300s. That general story, a hero taking down an enormous dragon has been used in a number of tales. Sigurd, Grettis, a few others that I can think of have had it attributed to them. Frequently if there was a local hero, a skald would take that accomplishment and add it to a well-known mythological hero to make it more interesting to people who most likely would've never heard of the original hero. It makes it harder to trace out where stories come from. Have you ever seen the papers where people try to figure out if the Cinderella story spread from one region or simply sprang up everywhere? Kind of the same thing happened with other myths. Things spread and change."

"I've read some really old stuff though, that keeps mentioning giants or giant dragons, or both sometimes it's hard to tell, mostly from the Scandinavian coastal areas all the way over to Iceland. But as for dates? Who knows. Could be anywhere from the 9th century to the 12th. "

"Huh." Mike murmured, before blinking and coming out of his thoughts. "Sorry for bothering you for so long," he said. "Since nobody needs either of us, I think I'll go for as long a flight as I can take."

"Hey, you were no bother. I was planning on digging out my iPod before you came in" Denise waved off apologies. "It's not like I'm doing brain surgery here. And I should apologize for not seeing that somebody told you that you didn't have to waste time coming down here. Go on, enjoy your flight while I stay mired in the Filing of Doom, envying every second you're in the air."

* * *

Sooo. An update. Please don't kill me for being so long away.

I'm planning on this and either one or two more chapters being sort of vignettes of Mike's life at the park. I plan of Dan making a reappearance probably in the next chapter, which will be posted sometime between now, and the world ending in 2012. Promise.

Oh, if you haven't seen Gift of the Night Fury- Go, see it now! It is freakin' adorable. The end with Toothless is just, GUH! So sweet!


End file.
